Two 15-storey buildings lying unused, four more to be constructed

The two 15-storey buildings constructed for the accommodation of government officials and employees in Aliganj of Narayanganj have been lying unused for three years.

The construction works of four other buildings are proceeding slowly now. There are doubts as to whether the government employees will be interested to live there or not.

The buildings have been erected in a place known as the Aliganj playground. The locals protested when the public works department took up the project. People from different walks of life, including freedom fighters, sports organisers, children and teenagers, formed human chains, blocked the streets and submitted a mass petition to the district administration.  However, the project wasn’t stopped.

The project to construct six buildings got government approval in January 2016. The construction of two buildings ended in June 2020.

There are allegations that although the construction work is finished, the buildings are not being handed over due to the lack of interest of government employees to live there.

Besides, there are no efforts to expedite the construction of the remaining buildings. Notably, the buildings were constructed for government employees, not for any specific government agencies or ministries.

Central Sramik League organising secretary and president of Aliganj Club Kawsar Ahmed is involved with the protest to save the Aliganj playground.

Speaking to Prothom Alo on Sunday, he said, “Aliganj is a industrial area. We warned the people concerned beforehand that the government employees won’t come to live here. Nobody listened to us.”

Kawsar Ahmed said, “Some corrupted officials brought this project to an industrial area for tender business. As far as I know, no one (government employees) wants to live here.”

According to the documents, the cost of the project to construct six buildings was estimated at Tk 4.02 billion. Later, the cost was increased by Tk 20 million. The initial plan was to construct eight buildings. Later, the number was lessened to six.

Each of the buildings will be 15-storied. There will be 504 flats in total in those buildings. The size of those flats varies from 800 square feet to 1,250 square feet. A six-storied school has also been constructed for the children of the government employees.

The project is being implemented on an 11.65-acre land. The size of the Aliganj playground is 5.70 acres. The public works department claims that the entire land belongs to them. However, the locals claim that a case regarding the ownership of the land is under trial at the moment.

It has been learnt that the number of buildings in the project was reduced to six to spare some space for the Aliganj playground. However, it’s not certain whether that field will be open for all or not as works are underway to construct a boundary wall surrounding the entire project site, including the Aliganj playground.

The distance from the secretariat in the capital to Aliganj in Narayanganj is around 15 kilometres on roads. There are several manufacturing factories in the area adjacent to the project site.

Visiting the place, it was seen that the two 15-storied buildings have some 168 1000-square-feet flats. Ansar members guard the two buildings. All the works of these two buildings are completed. Even the lifts have been set up. However, the flats are covered with layers of dust and the grills of the windows are rusted.

Asked about keeping those two buildings empty for three years, Rabiul Alam, engineer of the MN Huda Constructions, the contracting firm implementing the project, said on Sunday, “The public works department said that they wanted to take over all six buildings at once. Therefore, we are safeguarding the two buildings.”

The construction works of the remaining four buildings are near ending. The walls have been plastered. Only a few things remain to be done, including attaching tiles and setting up lifts.

However, the locals said the overall progress of the project reached the point a long ago. After that, the pace of the construction works slowed down.

The Dhali construction limited has got the contract to construct two of this building. The remaining two buildings are being constructed by the Iqbal Construction Enterprise. The works will be finished by June next year, said the engineers of these contracting firms.

Speaking to Prothom Alo, Dhali construction limited engineer Shahadat Hossain said, “The main works are completed. We are now pasting tiles, attaching doors and windows.”

According to project documents, the duration of the project was three years. The deadline of the project ended in June 2019. However, the public works department could not finish the work within the stipulated time. The deadline of the project was extended five times. Lastly, the duration of the project was extended up to July 2025. It means, it will take 9 years to construct six buildings.

Meanwhile, the project cost increased by Tk 20 million. However, the fact that it doesn’t take that much time to construct buildings is evident from other projects of the public works department. For instance, they constructed three 20-storied buildings within just 13 months. 

Abdullah Mohammad Jubair, executive engineer of the public works department, said, “The government employees can shift to those two buildings now. However, there is no civic facility in the area, like playgrounds, parks and boundary walls. This could be the reason behind nobody wanting to move there.”

They (government employees) will move there once all the civic facilities are ensured, he said.

However, a number of flats of the buildings constructed for the accommodation of the government employees in Dhaka are still empty.

The public works department finished the construction of 16 14-storied buildings in the capital’s Mirpur-6 and Shialbari area almost three years ago. Despite all the civic facilities, the government employees do not want to go there. So the question remains as to whether anybody will move to Aliganj in Narayanganj.

A school building has been constructed at a cost of Tk 90 million for the children of government employees. However, there are already two well-known schools nearby established in 1956 and 1993 respectively.

Speaking regarding this Aliganj Government Primary School head mistress Mahmuda Akter told Prothom Alo, “What is the benefit of having two schools in the same area? What is our job then? Many ask me this. But I don’t have an answer.”

However, the Department of Public Works is saying the new school will be used as a ‘community school’ for the time being. The residents will run the school through forming new committees. The final decision will be taken after a meeting with the primary and secondary education directorate.

It is being observed in recent times that several buildings constructed for government employees remained unused because of conducting no survey prior to construction. These sorts of buildings don’t come to work later.

According to the sources in the public works department, no survey was conducted before the construction of the building in Aliganj. No feasibility study was conducted to assess whether any government employee would be willing to move there or not. They didn’t even take any advice from the Directorate of Government Accommodation either.

The residents of Aliganj say they do not think that the government officials will move there. It is highly likely that the flats will be rented to the factory employees living nearby eventually as it happened in another accommodation project in the area taken up by another government agency.

Speaking to Prothom Alo, local resident Billal Hossain told Prothom Alo, “The playground has been concised due to this useless project. There are doubts over saving whatever of the playground is left. Already a boundary wall has been erected surrounding the entire project site.”

*This report appeared on the print and online versions of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Ashish Basu