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The construction work of the Jatrabari-Gulistan flyover, which began in June, has been advancing at a snail’s pace for what the implementing agency blamed labourer crisis during Ramadan and existing political situation in the country.
   ‘Inclement weather, labourer crisis during month-long Ramadan alongside blockade, strike and the siege programmes are the causes of the snail’s pace of the work,’ the project director of the country’s largest flyover project, Ashiqur Rahman, told New Age on Thursday.
   He also identified the underground lines of different utility services as hindrances, saying, ‘The government’s no to shift the underground lines of the utility service agencies prompted us to advance very carefully.’
   Asked whether the work has been suspended, he replied in the negative, saying ‘The work is continuing and we hope that it would begin in full swing after the upcoming national election.’
   An official of the Dhaka City Corporation, which is the implementing agency, said the construction of the seven-kilometre flyover had begun in a very limited scale on June 4 and it was yet to get momentum due to various reasons, including the recent political unrest.
   No significant activities were seen on Thursday at any of the three construction sites of the flyover being implemented at a cost of Tk 670 crore.
   Belhasa-Acom JV, the firm doing the construction work, has put fences of corrugated tin at the sites — one near the Janapath crossing on the Atish Dipankar Road, another on the Hatkhola Road, opposite the Rajdhani Super Market, and the remaining one in front of Sayedabad inter-district bus terminal — in the past five months.
   It has also completed piling works at the first two sites, an official of the corporation said adding no work other than fencing had yet been done at the site in front of Sayedabad bus terminal.
   It is the third flyover in the city and first one being constructed on a build-own-operate-transfer basis.
   The work of the flyover, which will have four lanes, seven entrances and 13 ramps, is scheduled to be completed in three years, the corporation sources said.
   As per the agreement between the corporation and Belhasa-Acom JV, the later will collect toll for 24 years from vehicles which will use the flyover, the corporation official said.
   Among 13 ramps of the flyover, six ramps will be used for entry to the flyover at the New Dayaganj Road crossing (opposite the Rajdhani Super Market) for the traffic approaching from Dayaganj moving towards Gulistan, at the Tikatuli crossing for traffic from Tikatuli moving towards Jatrabari, at the Sayedabad crossing for traffic approaching from Atish Dipankar Road moving towards Jatrabari, at the Sayedabad crossing for vehicles approaching from Atish Dipanker Road moving towards Gulistan and at the Jatrabari crossing for traffic coming from Narayanganj and heading towards Sayedabad and Gulistan, according to project sources.
   Seven exits have been proposed for flyover including the New Dayaganj Road crossing for Dayaganj-bound vehicles coming from Jatrabari, at the Sayedabad terminal for Gulistan-bound buses, at Sayedabad for buses approaching from Chittagong and Narayanganj and at Sayedabad for traffic from Jatrabari moving onto Atish Dipankar Road towards Khilgaon, the sources said.

The Chittagong Development Authority will construct a road from New Market to Shah Amanat Bridge through Sadarghat to ease traffic congestion in the areas.
   The work of the four-kilometre road project involving Tk 20 crore will begin in the current fiscal, CDA sources said.
   They said the road stretch from the New Market to Sadarghat would be 100 feet wide and it would be 200 feet from Sadarghat to the Shah Amanat Bridge. The road will also be linked with the Chittagong Railway Station.
   The sources said they were planning to construct the Sadarghat to Shah Amanat Bridge portion of the road in such way so that it could be a recreation site for the city dwellers alongside facilitating smooth traffic.
   The Chittagong Port Authority has agreed to conduct piling work for the road portion to be constructed along the Karnaphuli banks, the sources said adding that the CPA would also supply mud for the construction of the road. The mud will be collected through dredging in the river.
   The CDA chairman, Shah Mohammed Akhteruddin, said they had already completed groundwork of the project.
   ‘We hope to initiate the construction work in the current fiscal.’
   ‘On completion of the road, there will have no tailback fro New Market to Sadarghat and from Sadarghat to Shah Amanat Bridge,’ he hoped.
   He said the CPA was helping them in all possible ways.

Submission of admission forms for honour’s courses in Rajshahi University began on Saturday.
   A poor number of forms were submitted in different departments on the first day, campus sources said.
   The university authorities, however, could not confirm how many forms were submitted on the day.
   Meanwhile, the admission seekers will be able to submit forms in exchange of Tk 100 in the respective departmental offices. The form, however, was available at Tk 90 last year.
   The forms are available on the university website www.ru.ac.bd and it could be downloaded free of cost.
   The written admission test will begin on December 3 and will continue till December 14, the campus sources said.
   Earlier, the left leaning student organisations, including Samajtantrik Chhatra Front, Chhatra Union and Bangladesh Chhatra Federation, several times demanded that the university authorities should decrease the price of the form.
   They also threatened if the price of admission form was not decreased, they would launch a greater movement on the reopening day of the campus on November 10.

Chhatra Sangram Parishad, a student forum of the Awami League-led combine, has called off its continuous strike on the Shahjalal University of Science and Technology campus.
   The student forum announced its indefinite student strike on the campus on July 5, demanding removal of the immediate-past vice-chancellor of the university Mosleh Uddin Ahmed.
   In a statement on Saturday issued by Habibur Rahman Selim, convener of Chhatra Sangram Parishad, said they called off the strike as their main demand of withdrawal of Mosleh Uddin Ahmed was met.
   ‘We will decide on rest of our demands after discussing with the newly-appointed vice-chancellor, Professor M Aminul Islam,’ said the statement.
   In another press release, leaders of the AL-led students’ forum congratulated and thanked the chancellor, also president-cum-chief of the caretaker government, Iajuddin Ahmed, and the University Grants Commission members for appointing a new vice-chancellor.
   The press release was signed, among others, by Habibur Rahman Selim, convener of the Parishad, Jaglu Chowdhury and Ishtiaq Ahmed Chowdhury, respectively president and general secretary of the district unit of the BCL, and Syed Utba, president of Jatiya Chhatradhara.
   SUST classes will resume today after five months of closure because of an impasse over withdrawal of the ex-VC, campus sources said.
   The campus situation turned grave after the killing of a student in police firing when the SUST students clashed with the students of privately-owned Ragib-Rabeya Medical College. Several other students were also injured in the tripartite melee.
   A section of teachers under the banner of Progressive Teachers’ Alliance also agitated demanding resignation of Mosleh Uddin.

The Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Saturday handed over an ambulance to Anjuman -e-Mafidul Islam, a philanthropist organisation, as part of its corporate social responsibility for the distressed humanity.
   The handover ceremony was followed by a discussion on ‘corporate social responsibility and its impacts on business’ organised by the DCCI with its President M A Momen in the chair.
   Speaking on the occasion as the chief guest, city mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka said it is the responsibility of all affluent people to serve the distressed humanity by all means.
   ‘They can not avoid such a social responsibility anyway,’ he said.
   The mayor said the government alone can not provide adequate service to the vast poor people and urged the richer section of the society to extend their helping hand to the greater benefit of the distressed humanity to supplement the government efforts in this regard.
   MA Momen said in the era of free market economy and competitive global village indicators like CSR have emerged as a big challenge before the corporate houses for their sustainable growth.
   ‘In this respect, the country’s business houses have been trying their best to ensure CSR in their respective houses and establishments,’ he said.
   ‘The handover of this ambulance to Anjuman-e-Mafidul Islam is a demonstration of DCCI’s earnest efforts to help the distressed humanity. It will increase in future,” he told the function.
   Later, Khoka handed over the key of the ambulance to Anjuman’s president.
   DCCI’s senior vice-presidents Hossain Khaled, Hossain A Sikder and directors were present on the occasion.

Local people blocked up the Khulna-Jessore Highway at Maheshwarpasha area in the Khulna city for about an hour following the death of two people in separate road accidents Saturday morning.
   The police said Shakil, 6, son of Jewel Mridha, of Moheshwarpasha in Daulatpur, was run over by a Khulna-bound bus at Maniktala at 10:00am while he was crossing the road.
   The locals became angry and blocked the highway demanding arrest of the driver. The blockade was withdrawn following assurance by the local administration of meeting the demand.
   Earlier, a bus helper Didar Hossain, 30, fell down from another bus at Mohsin crossing at around 9:40am and he was run over by the vehicle.

Speakers at a seminar on ‘present situation in CHT: options in the context’ emphasised the need for upholding the provisions of the CHT peace accord.
   The Center for Strategic and Peace Studies organised the seminar at CIRDAP auditorium in Dhaka on Saturday. Executive director of the CSPS Major General (retd) Ghulam Quader, Khamlai Mourong, Brigadier General (retd) M Sakhawat Hussain, Dr CR Abrar, Sadeq Khan, and Dr Syed Anwar Hossain, spoke on the occasion, said a press release.

Weather is likely to remain mainly dry with partly cloudy sky over the country in the next 24 hours till 6:00pm today, said the Met Office in a forecast on Saturday.
   Night temperature may remain nearly unchanged. The country’s highest temperature on Saturday, 34.2 degrees Celsius, was recorded at Sitakundu and the lowest, 19.3 degrees Celsius, at Srimongal.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 5:17pm and rises on Monday at 6:08am.

Bangladesh will extend its all-out cooperation to the United Nations in implementing its programmes worldwide to eradicate poverty and diseases.
   Bangladesh’s ambassador and permanent representative to the UN Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury said this while addressing a ‘working launch’ at the UN Headquarters in New York on Thursday.
   His address marked the presentation of a draft decision on creating awareness about diabetes globally, said an official press release in Dhaka on Saturday.
   Referring to the examples of micro-credit and informal education in Bangladesh, he said the country was now being considered as a ‘thought-leader’ in these fields in the international arena.
   ‘Bangladesh has proved it in the world that a nation cannot attain real success in development unless it tries itself, although foreign assistance is required in such endeavours,’ he said.
   ‘This is our philosophy — the result of our own experience and we want to share it with the world,’ he added.
   Referring to a comment of this year’s Nobel peace prize winner Dr Muhammad Yunus, who said ‘poverty should be placed inside museum during our time’, Chowdhury said the Millennium Development Goals launched by the UN would not be possible if poverty and diseases could not be eradicated from the world.
   Ambassadors and permanent representatives from a total of 120 countries attended the function.

The Gulshan police on Saturday detained a protocol officer of the Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka for allegedly assaulting his wife after being drunk.
   The police claimed they had picked up Jamal Khan from his residence at Banani after his wife, Fahmida Jamal, levelled the allegation of assault against him in the morning.
   Fahmida said Jamal used to drink a lot, return home late into the night and beat her.
   Jamal was handed over to the Pakistan High Commission officials in the afternoon when Fahmida withdrew her complaint, the police said.

Fire burns cable factory office in Chittagong
Assets worth of about Tk 10 lakh were gutted in a fire that broke out from a cable factory’s office located in the Jublee road area in the Chittagong city early Saturday. The fire originated from a short circuit in the office of ‘Paradox Cable Ltd’ at about 4:30am and engulfed its adjacent rooms, burning computer, furniture and important documents rapidly, fire service and civil defense sources said. Four fire fighting units rushed to the spot and brought the flame under control at around 5:55am. Fire service recovered valuables worth of about Tk 30 lakh during the time. No casualty, however, was reported in this connection.

RAB recovers abandoned firearms, ammunation
The Rapid Action Battalion members recovered abandoned firearms and ammunitions from Bibirbagicha area under Jatrabari in Dhaka Friday night. The battalion sources said a RAB-10 team raided a hideout at Bibirbagicha where members of a suspected gang assembled to commit crime at around 10:30pm. Sensing RAB presence, the gang members fled the scene, leaving a foreign made revolver loaded with six rounds of bullet and 99 pieces 10 taka’s note. A case was filed with Jatrabari police.
— New Age