Photo: Collected
Jagannath University (JnU) has gotten the proposed 200 acres of land for the new campus in Keraniganj by getting another 11 acres of land from the Ministry of Land. Chief Engineer of the University, Helal Uddin Patwari, confirmed this matter on Wednesday (19 April).
He said that a meeting of the "Central Land Allocation Committee" of the Land Ministry was held on Monday (17 April). The representatives of Jagannath University, the Dhaka district administration, the committee president, and Land Minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury were present there. In that meeting, the remaining 11.40 acres of land were approved for our proposed 200-acre campus.
Chief Engineer Helal Uddin also said that the proprietary land was thin inside the campus, next to the Padma railway. The land will be taken in that direction. Apart from that, the land will be taken next to Mujahidnagar. A survey will be conducted for this. The district administration has been asked to complete all the processes to acquire the land by June so that we may buy the land before the money goes back in June.
Meanwhile, the chief engineer of the university expressed hope that various works, including the boundary wall, which is stalled in uncertainty for the remaining land, will be completed soon.
The Jagannath University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dr. Imdadul Haque, said, "We have run around a lot in the Land Ministry to get the remaining 11 acres of land." This is good news for the university that we have gotten the remains of the land finally. It is expected that our new campus project will move forward quickly if the acquisition work is completed soon.
It is to be noted that the activities of the university started at the Jagannath College campus in Old Dhaka in 2005. Then, in 2016, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced the establishment of a fully modern new campus of Jagannath University at Keraniganj in the face of a shortage of campus space and hall movement. In 2017, ECNEC approved a new campus of 200 acres at Jagannath University. However, on January 23, 2020, the district administration of Dhaka conveyed 188.60 acres of land to the university authorities. 11.40 acres of land remained and were to be transferred.
TDM/FMT
