Road expansion project in Rajshahi that never ends
Even after eight years, Rajshahi Development Authority (RDA) could not complete a 5km road expansion and construction work of the city's first ever flyover. Throughout the years, the design has been changed multiple times and new features added, increasing project implementation cost by Tk 119 crore. "We want to complete the works in a way that is beneficial for people. This is why we're taking our time with it," project director Md Abdullah Al Tariq told The Daily Star recently. Beside the cost increase, and its toll on people's coffers, people are also the victim of the delay as commuters of a traffic-logged city. According to documents and officials, RDA took up the project in February, 2013. They planned expanding the five-kilometre Ruet to Kharkhari road (15.85 metres wide), at a cost of Tk 87.36 crore. The project was scheduled to end in three years, by June, 2016. By 2016, it was already half-way there. But then the RDA authorities decided t