Pankaj Dastider
 
The Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) has undertaken a project involving Tk 25.95 billion (2595 crore) to address the waterlogging problem in the city port.

Another project involving Tk 56.16 billion to address the problem is now under implementation by the Chittagong Development Authority (CDA).

The BWDB project, already approved in a pre-ECNEC (Executive Committee for National Economic Council), meeting, is now all set to be approved by the ECNEC, said an engineer at the BWDB in the city.

Sources said that Chattogram city had been suffering from acute waterlogging in every rainy season for decades.

The situation worsens even during the dry season leading to flooding in most of the low-lying areas because of the rise of the water level during high tide of the Karnaphuli river.

Executive Engineer of the BWDB in Chattogram Bidyut Kumar Saha said their project would not overlap that of the CDA. The "Chattogram City Waterlogging Mitigation Project" that would supplement that, he added.

He said the BWDB project had been designed to pump out the rain water during the monsoon by installing pump houses excavating, new canals as well as through, dredging and waste management.

"We will be constructing many sluice gates for development of the total drainage system in the city and block pouring of high tide water through construction of retaining walls," he said.

Under the project, the BWDB will construct 2.7 kilometres of flood protection wall from the Naval Academy to the Number 15 Ghat Airport Canal, 6.5-kilometre long Kalurghat Rail-Road Bridge to Kata Khal Flood Protection Wall, 8.0-kilometre Airport Canal to Navy Area-End and 4.5-kilometre Banglabazar to Shah Amanat Bridge slope protection and flood protection wall.

As soon as the project is approved at the ECNEC meeting, the implementation process would start without any delay, he said. The project is scheduled to be completed by June 2021.

The CDA is implementing the Tk 56.16 billion waterlogging mitigation project under the canal digging, expansion, renovation and development project which is expected to be completed by June 2020.

Under the project the CDA will remove silt from 36 canals in the city, construct a 176-kilometre RCC retaining wall, 48 PC girder bridges, three giant water reservoirs to contain flood water, six RCC culverts, five tidal regulators, 12 pump houses, 42 silt traps, 200 cross-drain culverts and 15.50-kilometre of roadside drain expansion.