Construction of railway overpass in Jamalpur town has delayed because no money has been released for the land acquisition. Traders and city-dwellers are suffering much due to the movement of vehicles on the main roads of the town.
People demanded a 'traffic-free city. Therefore, a project was undertaken to build a 60-meter railway overpass in the Gatepar area. The cost of land acquisition and construction of railway overpass was estimated at Tk 344.36 crore. Tk 291 crore was earmarked for land acquisition alone. The remaining Tk 53.36 crore was earmarked for railway overpass construction. Tama Construction, Jamil Islam and Moin Uddani Bashi construction firms jointly started the work on February 18, 2019.The work was scheduled to be completed in June 2020 but the tenure of work was extended till 2021.
Motiur Rahman, General Secretary of Bangladesh Shop Owners Association, Jamalpur District unit, said, “Our business is almost closed due to delay in construction of the railway overpass.”
"We had been demanding construction of a railway overpass in the rail-gate area of the town for a long time. Our demands were being met. But the construction work has not yet been completed causing sufferings to the passersby as well as the traders in the area”, claimed Jahangir Selim, president of the Environment Protection Movement.
The local caretaker looking after the construction, Robiul Alam said, ‘We have no negligence at work. The Department of Roads and Urban Development has still not given us a designated place to work. Despite that we continued work in the space that we had. As a result, it is not possible to work with full force. Losses have to be calculated for this. We want to finish the work quickly.”
A proposal has been sent to give a waiver on land acquisition. The executive engineer, Mostafizur Rahman said, "Land acquisition money was in the priority project category."
Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Enamul Haque said, "The land acquisition process has come to a standstill as the Roads and Highway authorities have not yet released the money. A letter has been sent to the RHD to release the money."
Traffic jams occurred in the rail crossing area due to the movement of trains from Jamalpur station to Dewanganj station and Sarishabari route, known locally as Gatepar. In addition, accidents took place very often there.
