Hyundai 'faces action' over dam breach Sirajganj, July 11 (bdnews24.com)—Korea's Hyundai faces legal action after the Sirajganj town flood embankment has been breached by swelling waters long before its 100-year "guaranteed" lifetime. Water resources minister Ramesh Chandra Sen said Saturday the Korean construction giant would be charged with failing to live up to its contractual obligations. A top official had earlier said he suspected faults in the flood barrier's design. "Maybe there were flaws in the design or in the construction itself," said Md Abul Kalam Azad, director general of the Bangladesh Water Development Board, earlier in the day. "The violent current of the risen Jamuna river removed the concrete blocks or sand bags under the embankment," said the WDB chief, who came under fire from his minister for his other comments on the safety of the Jamuna Bridge. During his visit to the dam breach site, the minister told the WDB chief that the latter shouldn't have said the bridge was "at risk" from rising waters, which immediately led to screaming headlines in the media. The 2.5-kilometre embankment, built by a Hyundai-led consortium during 1995-99, cost Tk 332 crore and was designed to protect the district town. Since Friday morning, a 600 foot stretch of the 'hard point' of the embankment was breached at Shashan Goila Ghat, just two kilometres from the district township, as the Jamuna swelled. Residents of Shashan Goila area, who started dismantling homes and shifting possessions to safer zones, have accused the WDB of not undertaking essential repairs of vulnerable stretches of the bund in time. Assisted by the local administration, WDB employees and locals dumped sand filled bags and concrete blocks to reinforce the embankment and stop further wear. Earlier Saturday morning, the water resources minister visited villages along the embankment of the Teesta river in Lalmonir Sadar and Kaliganj upazilas. He also visited the Teesta barrage site in the afternoon. WDB additional director general Md. Habibur Rahman, local AL general secretary KS Hossain Ali was also with the minister. http://bdnews24.com/details.php?id=89505&cid=2 |
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