'Whimsical' development at Jahangirnagar University

A development project is being implemented at a cost of about Tk 15 billion in Jahangirnagar University.

Many, however, termed the development 'whimsical' as allegations of irregularities have been raised while Public Procurement Rules (PPR) has not been followed. Moreover, buildings are being constructed flouting the master plan and trees are being cut down.

A project title 'further development project' was undertaken to construct 21 infrastructures at a cost of Tk 14.45 billion in the university.  

Under the project, residential buildings for students, teachers, officials and employees, an administrative building, an extension of academic building and sports complex are being built.

Under the project to be completed in three phases, construction of six residential buildings--three for boys and three for girls-- is about to be completed. The construction of 14 establishments was inaugurated on 8 June although the construction of all infrastructures was supposed to be completed by March.

The tenure of the project has been extended till December 2024. There is a fear of rising costs as the price of construction materials is soaring.

After the beginning of the project work in 2019, an allegation was raised that a a large amount of money in the the form of 'toll' had been provided to Chhatra League leaders through the intervention of the then vice chancellor so that the construction work was not hampered.

However, vice chancellor Farzana Islam in a press conference on 1 October 2019 denied the allegation. On the day, Chhatra League central president Rejwanul Haque Chowdhury and general secretary Golam Rabbani were removed from their posts.

Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) approved the further development project of Jahangirnagar University in November 2018.

As per circular of the planning ministry, there is no scope to appoint the project director before the approval of the project. However, the university administration mentioned name of Nasir Uddin as project director in the development project proposal (DPP) ahead of the approval.

Nasir Uddin is acting director of the university's planning and development office. About the matter he said, "In accordance with the PPR, there is a rule that official having experience of formulating planning and implementation can be appointed as the project director. I have been appointed as I have the overall experience of the project."

According to the circular of the planning ministry, after approval of a project worth Tk 500 million or more, the ministry or the department will form a committee to appoint a project director. This committee will finalise the appointment of the project director. However, in this project, a director has been appointed without formation of the committee.

As per DPP, only one consulting firm is supposed to be appointed for making the design and monitoring the work. But, more than one consulting firm has been engaged.

Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Department (IMED) in a report last year said the project implementation authorities have appointed four consulting firms although they are supposed to appoint one consulting firm in accordance with approved DPP.

Under the same work order, alongside the main consulting firm, the work is being done by Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) as specialised institution.

Project director Nasir Uddin said more than one consulting firm has been appointed out of necessity. All people concerned have been apprised.

But IMED in its report opined that the secondary and higher education division should look into the matter that PPR has not been followed in appointing the consulting firm.

As per open tender process of PPR-2008, at least 28 days are supposed to be given for submission of tender after the publication of advertisement in the newspaper.

But for the development project of Jahangirnagar University, advertisement for tender was published on 3 May 2019. The collection of tender and submission was fixed till 28 May.

At the time, contractors alleged tender schedules were not available in Agrani Bank during the first 14 days after the publication of circular.  It is a rule that the interested contractors will be able to collect tenders paying fixed amount of money without any application.

However, the project director set a condition that tenders have to be collected from Agrani Bank after taking his permission, which is a violation of PPR.

Apart from that, the project work had been divided in six parts. The condition there was that each contractor could collect tender for only one part. It has been learnt that at the end taking prior permission from the project manager six contractors collected tenders from six parts.

Under such condition, a possibility of a tender being submitted against each of the parts had arisen. In this situation, the project director gave the contractors scopes of collecting multiple tender schedules, violating the tender rules.

In this regard project director Nasir Uddin said, “This dates back to 2019. I don’t want to discuss past matters.”

The University Grants Commission (UGC) is the implementing agency of the project. When asked about the IMED report, UGC Secretary Ferdous Zaman told Prothom Alo that UGC once had strong supervising power but, not anymore.

The reason is that earlier money used be disbursed through UGC. Now the money is sent directly to the project manager. He questioned, what’s the use of monitoring if there’s no financial power?

Jahangirnagar University is established on 698 acres of land. There are different types of trees in there. Migratory birds take shelter in many of the water bodies there. Different animals including the fox inhibit it as well. In all, the university campus is labeled as ‘Shobujer Nogori’ (city of greenery).

Acclaimed architect Mazharul Islam prepared the first master plan of Jahangirnagar University campus in 1968. However, as time went by the master plan got disrupted. Again, the master plan is overlooked in times of further development.

Teachers and students of the university say that under the new project, trees are being cut and soil is being dug up for construction. Installations are being built all over the place without a comprehensive master plan.

For instance, three student halls were planned around the Biswakabi Rabindranath Tagore Hall at the beginning of the development project. Students however objected to the space selection for that, as the spots were covered with various trees.

In the face of the movement, those three installations were built around Shaheed Rafiq-Jabbar Hall of the university, bringing a change to the plan.

The university authorities later, changed the designated construction site of four more buildings. Two separate residential buildings for teachers and officials were to be constructed in front of the Jahangirnagar University School and College.

The site of the teacher’s residential building has been shifted to the opposite of the school and college grounds. And, the newly designated location of the officers’ residence is in the residential area adjacent to the University's Joy Bangla Gate.

According to the new design,the provosts’ residence was planned to be built next to Sheikh Hasina Hall of the university. The location of that building has been moved to the residential area as well.

A guest house was supposed to be constructed in front of the university teachers' club and bachelor's quarters. That too has been moved to a new location at the back of the tennis court.

University vice-chancellor Nurul Alam believes it requires a long time to direct this development project with a comprehensive master plan. He told Prothom Alo, “We are trying our best to coordinate as much as we can.”

However, AKM Abul Kalam, a professor at the urban and regional planning department of the university told Prothom Alo that the project should have been started by making a comprehensive master plan emphasising on the natural environment of Jahangirnagar.

Failure to do so is creating controversies as well as the work is being plagued with errors.

Despite having two administrative buildings in the university, the administration had decided to construct another administrative building at a cost of Tk 1.38 billion.

On last 21 June, a report was published in Prothom Alo, concerning the probability of millions going to waste in the construction of new administrative building at JU. Later on 3 August, the education ministry ordered the construction of the administrative building to be suspended.

Through the development project office sources and from talking to concerned authorities visiting the university it has been learned that about 750 trees have been cut down at different locations of the university, since the development project started in 2018.

Over two hundred trees more are at risk of being slashed down for the project to be finished. Environmental scientists believe that cutting down in this ‘unplanned’ way is having an adverse effect on the ecosystem of the university.

They say that various species of animals and birds roam freely on the campus. These trees are being felled without taking the monitor lizards, mongoose, foxes, squirrels and migratory birds into consideration.

Jamal Uddin, chairman of the environmental sciences department told Prothom Alo that the university administration is shamelessly cutting off trees. Without paying attention to the design, construction sites are being altered at the whim.

It becomes clear from observing the situation that the development work is going on sporadically without any plan. As a result, the trees are being butchered indiscriminately.

Jahangirnagar University was established as a residential university but it failed to preserve that characteristic. The number of departments has been increased along with the number of student admission. There are 34 departments and 4 institutes at the university now.

The university has a total of 12 thousand students with more than 700 teachers. In a decade, the number of departments rose by 8, with two new institutes. In 2010, the number of students at the university was 10 thousand while there were 550 teachers employed.

Concerned people say that the increase in the number of students and teachers has created a crisis of accommodation and lack of space in the academic buildings. The mega project has been taken up showing these reasons, but there was no proper planning.

While talking to Prothom Alo Adil Mohammed Khan, professor at the urban and regional planning department of the university said from observing the situation, it seems like it’s a whimsical project. The state of the construction indeed indicates how much planning had gone into the project .

He added, the inconsistency in the construction of the buildings is obvious. There is no precise master plan for such a large scale project. Yet, it was possible to transform the university entirely with a master plan.

*This report, originally published in Prothom Alo print and online editions, has been rewritten in English by Rabiul Islam and Nourin Ahmed Monisha