The 10-storey car parking lot built in the much-hyped City Centre — a 37-storey building in downtown Motijheel Commercial Area to ease traffic congestion — is yet to be commissioned for lack of power and gas connections.
The Dhaka City Corporation conceived the plan to construct the multi-storey parking lot-cum-commercial building on 18 Kathas of land in 1997.
The tendering process for the project had been completed in 2003 and construction work started in 2005.
DCC officials said construction of the high-rise — the tallest building in the country — was completed in 2009.
‘This modern structure is now ready with six lifts, car park, back-up generator, one helipad and fire fighting systems, but for lack of electricity and gas connections, the centre could not be opened,’ said Ashiqur Rahman, DCC superintendent engineer.
He told New Age on Thursday that application for utility services connections had been submitted to the authorities in 2009 as soon the building was completed.
‘But there is no response from the authorities. We can open the centre as soon as we are given power and gas connections,’ he added.
Ashiqur said every day about 1,500 to 2,000 cars are parked on the roads and lanes at the different points of Motijheel, creating huge traffic congestion. The huge parking lot at the centre would accommodate up to 2,000 vehicles at a time.
Belhasa Accom JV Ltd, a member of Orion Group, financed and implemented the project under the supervision of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.
DCC sources said parking fee at the City Centre would be much less than the rates charged at airport and at different shopping centres in the city.
Meanwhile DCC is building another multi-storeyed parking- cum-commercial centre at Dilkusha, adjacent to Motijheel, on about two bighas of land, they said.
Work on this second centre with adequate car park facility started in 2005, DCC officials said. The centre’s commercial part is being constructed by a private developer company.
‘But work on this second centre is also being hampered due to lack of electricity and gas connections,’ they said.
DCC has plans for building two other car parking-cum-multi-purpose commercial buildings at Gulshan and Banani areas to curb traffic congestions in the city.
