The Local Government Division (LGD) has reportedly not responded to the Chittagong City Corporation (CCC)’s request for fund to beautify the port city ahead of the Twenty20 World Cup.
Fifteen T20 matches will be held at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury stadium in the city.
The CCC has started repairing rundown streets, sculptures and other installations set up during the last World Cup.
Mayor Monjur Alam said he had sought Tk 500 million to give the city a facelift ahead of the T20 World Cup starting from Mar 16.
He said he was ‘still optimistic’ about getting ‘some’ allocation.
“We haven’t got anything yet,” Alam said. “Our funding request is being processed. I hope we will get it.”
No one at the LGD was immediately available for a comment.
The Mayor said they would go ahead with the repair works with their own fund. The CCC has allocated Tk 100 million for maintenance work.
In 2011, the LGD had given the CCC around Tk 770 million for beautification work ahead of the World Cup.
People blamed the city corporation for failing to maintain the sculptures and other structures set up during that time.
Mayor Alam said the companies that set up the fountains and sculptures would maintain them. “We spoke to them about it,” he said on repairing them.
Meanwhile, initiatives to set up new sculptures of tigers have hit a dead end.
CCC engineer Anowar Hossain said work order of the private company that had won a Tk 12 million tender last year to set up sculptures of 10 tigers and eight deer was cancelled on Jan 14 as they failed to deposit money in due time.
Another CCC engineer Yakub Nabi said works to repair roads and painting road islands were already underway.
“We hope to finish the work before the tournament begins,” he said.
Source: Bd news24
