C T Online Desk: Residents of the port city of Chittagong have threatened to ramp up their protests if the Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) does not backtrack from its move to fell 46 century-old trees and level hill slopes from Tiger Pass to the Central Railway Building area for the construction of a ramp of an elevated expressway being built in the city.
A group of people under the banner of Civil Society issued the warning after taking position under a century-old tree at the Tiger Pass intersection on Monday.
Freedom fighter Dr Mahfuzur Rahman, one of the speakers at the rally, said: “If the CDA wants to build a ramp there are plenty of places. Why should we have to cut down trees? No one will be allowed to cut down trees here. They can do whatever is needed keeping nature intact.”
“Their target is to destroy the environment of the CRB after damaging the century-old trees and road and then grab the CRB,” he said, adding there is no need to plant new seedlings here.
Speakers at the rally also compared those who cut down 18 trees to make a 6-km road to vultures. On a sarcastic note, they said they have seen the authorities’ great skills in reducing waterlogging in the city.
The Chittagong authorities who failed to destroy the CRB now want to damage the environment of the CRB, its main attraction, they said.
The authorities, including the CDA, are saying that only 46 trees will be felled, which is nonsense, they added.
Chittagong residents have been newly notified of the CDA’s intentions. The speakers also urged the CDA to avoid such businesses in the name of development.
They said they will force the CDA to withdraw its plan through a movement.
Those at the forefront of the movement might be drawing inspiration from the success of another past movement, when the authorities were planning to tear down the historic CRB, a remnant of the British Era, in order to use the space for a modern hospital, back in 2021.
At the time, the city’s residents organized against the move and demanded the hospital be built elsewhere. The sprawling CRB and its surrounding areas, one of the few green spots left in the city, are regarded as the lungs of Chittagong, where people can come and breathe some fresh air.
After 483 days of protests by the city’s residents, the authorities were forced to relent and scrap the hospital project in late 2022.
According to CDA officials, among the 14 ramps of the expressway, one will be constructed at GEC junction, two at Tiger Pass, four in Agrabad, one in Fakirhat, two in Nimtala, two at CEPZ and two at KEPZ.
One of the two ramps at the Tiger Pass intersection will be on the New Market-bound road via the CRB, while the other will be on the Ambagan-bound road. The CDA sent a letter to the Bangladesh Railway on March 25 seeking permission to use 14 decimal land for the construction of the ramp.
Kazi Hasan bin Shams, chief engineer at the CDA, said the ramp in the CRB area will be constructed with utmost deference to environmental compliance.
