Army raids Geneva Camp in Mohammadpur, 7 arrested along with weapons
Writ seeking ban on political activities of 11 parties including AL withdrawn
Chief Adviser visits Ganabhaban, orders to quickly convert it into a museum
Tunnel is like a 'white elephant', daily loss of Tk. 27 lakh
Special cell formed to preserve history of student-people uprising
The army has raided Geneva Camp in Mohammadpur in the capital and arrested 7 people along with two foreign revolvers and domestic weapons.
The Daring Tigers Unit of 23 East Bengal Regiment conducted the raid on Monday (October 28) night.
The army said that the raid was conducted based on information that the drug lord of Geneva Camp, Munia Sohel, was staying at the camp. However, the raiding party could not arrest Munia Sohel. The army arrested 7 of his associates. During the raid, they recovered two foreign revolvers from Munia Sohel's hideout.
The army also said that their raid will continue until Mohammadpur is free from terrorism and drugs.
Meanwhile, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that in the current situation in the country, the Bangladesh Army is working with professionalism across the country to prevent extrajudicial activities and uphold the rule of law, in addition to ensuring the security of public life and property and important government installations and controlling the law and order situation. The army's position will remain strict in suppressing terrorism and improving the law and order situation.
Hasnat Abdullah and Sarjis Alam have withdrawn their writ seeking a ban on the activities of 11 political parties including Bangladesh Awami League and Jatiya Party.
On Tuesday (October 29) morning, their lawyer Advocate Ahsanul Karim came to Justice Fatema Najib's court and said that they no longer want to pursue the writ. Later, the High Court removed it from the agenda.
Earlier, Hasnat Abdullah, Sarjis Alam and Hasibul Islam, one of the coordinators of the anti-discrimination student movement, filed the writ on Monday (October 28).
The parties are- Awami League, Jatiya Party, Jatiya Party (JP), Tarikat Federation, Ganatantri Party, Communist Party of Bangladesh, Bikalpadhara, Liberal Democratic Party, Bangladesh Samyabadi Dal (M-L) (Dilip Barua), Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD).
Chief Adviser Dr. Muhammad Yunus visited Ganabhaban with the aim of creating a museum for the July-August mass uprising. He also gave instructions to quickly convert this Ganabhaban into a museum.
The Chief Adviser made this visit on Monday (August 28) afternoon. At this time, Adilur Rahman Khan, Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud of the advisory council were present with him. In addition, Mahfuz Alam, special assistant to the Chief Adviser, was also present with them.
During the visit, he said that the dictator Sheikh Hasina lived in this Ganabhaban for 15 years. With the fall on August 5, this building has now been transformed into a symbol of her autocracy.
He also ordered the installation of a replica of the Mirror House (Aina Ghar) in this Ganabhaban to make the people understand how brutally the prisoners of the Mirror House were tortured.
Post and Telecommunications Adviser Nahid Islam said that the misdeeds of Hasina's rule, which started in 2009, will be carefully preserved in the museum.
He also said that discussions will be held with experts from other countries on how to make the revolution and rebellion memorable.
It is worth noting that Sheikh Hasina was forced to leave the country on August 5 after the students' movement against discrimination announced its first phase. After that, thousands of people entered Gonobhaban. The revolutionary students and people expressed their anger against Sheikh Hasina on the walls of Gonobhaban. In order to preserve all this anger, the interim government has taken the initiative to build this Gonobhaban as a museum in the July-August mass uprising.
White elephant! The words are quite familiar. This is usually used to refer to something that is more expensive to maintain than it is to use. In fact, the tunnel built under the Karnaphuli River in Chattogram has turned into a white elephant after a year of operation.
A large number of vehicles will ply, and the construction costs will be covered with its tolls, and foreign loans can also be paid off - even though the Awami League government inflated the balloon of such expectations before the tunnel was built, it seems that it is gradually deflating.
A year ago, on October 28, this tunnel, the first under-river tunnel in South Asia, was opened. Accordingly, Monday (October 28) marks one year since the tunnel was opened. In this one year, vehicles did not run as expected. As a result, toll collection was very low. Toll collection and maintenance costs were 72 times more than the income. For this reason, many are calling it a loss-making project though the tunnel authorities want to wait another two years.
According to the tunnel authority, an average of 18,485 vehicles was expected to pass through the tunnel every day in the first year. But currently, there are about six times fewer vehicles, an average of 3,910. Therefore, although an average of Tk. 10,37,154 is collected as toll per day, Tk. 3,746,993 is being spent on maintenance. In other words, not even a third of the daily expenditure is being earned from the tunnel, the loss is Tk. 2,799,839. It was learned from talking to the tunnel authority that 1,411,412 vehicles of various types have passed through the tunnel in the last one year. Of these, private cars and microbuses (light vehicles) have passed through 76.75 percent, buses 10 percent, trucks 12.4 percent and trailers 85 percent. As of October 22, 3,910 vehicles have passed through the tunnel. In total, Tk. 37 crore 85 lakh 61 thousand 210 has been collected as toll per year. But the average daily expenditure on toll collection and maintenance is Tk. 37 lakh 46 thousand 993. Accordingly, Tk.136 crore 76 lakh 52 thousand 445 has been spent on maintenance in a year. It is seen that the loss in this one year has been Tk. 98 crore 90 lakh 1 thousand 235.
Basically, this dream tunnel has turned into a loss-making project because the survey does not match the reality. However, work is underway to quickly connect Cox's Bazar and Matarbari with the tunnel. If this is possible, it is believed that vehicle movement and income will increase.
Stating that we will have to wait another two years to get the benefits of the tunnel, the tunnel's sub-project director (technical) Abul Kalam Azad said that the tunnel is a long-term project, it cannot be called a loss-making project until all the plans are implemented here. Along with this project, there are plans to shift the activities of Marine Drive, China Economic Zone, Anwara-Baanshkhali-Cox's Bazar road and Chattogram Port to the Anwara-Karnaphuli end. If all these are implemented, this tunnel will play a huge role in the country's economy.
On the morning of October 26, Secretary of the Bridges Division Md. Fahimul Islam came to inspect the overall situation of the tunnel. He held a meeting with the officials responsible for the maintenance of the tunnel. In the meeting, they felt that less cars were running because the China Economic Zone and alternative roads were not operational at the Anwara end of the tunnel.
However, the locals are disappointed to see a huge gap between dreams and reality. The previous Awami League government had expressed the dream of a 'One City two Town' model around the tunnel. But no steps were taken to implement that plan. As a result, 7 bank branches, various markets and hundreds of shops built around the tunnel at the Anwara end are now facing losses and many have closed their businesses. Due to the tunnel, the price of land had increased several times in the beginning. Now, there has been a decline in sales.
In a recently published research paper titled 'How far-sighted is the construction of the tunnel?', Professor Dr. Shamsul Haque called the tunnel project a short-sighted plan.
The research paper mentioned that within 30 kilometers of the Karnaphuli Tunnel, there is the Shah Amanat Bridge. Compared to this bridge, the toll rate of the Karnaphuli Tunnel is two and a half to six times higher per vehicle. This difference in toll rate is creating a challenge in increasing the number of vehicles in the tunnel.
Disaster Management and Relief Adviser Faruk-e-Azam, who visited Chattogram a few days ago, also spoke about the tunnel. He said that a deep analysis is being done on whose instructions and for whom the Karnaphuli Tunnel was built. Now it remains to be seen what initiatives the interim government takes to accelerate this 'eye-catching' project.