One of the major drainage canals inside the project, Kutubkhali canal, has shrunk drastically as the BNP big shots built several CNG filling stations, workshops and other structures filling up a large chunk of the canal.

Roads and Highways Department (RHD) during the last BNP-led coalition government leased out 27 to 30 decimals of land beside the Kutubkhali canal between the stretch of Jatrabari and Kanchpur along Dhaka-Chittagong highway and approved construction of various workshops and other structures including seven CNG filling stations.

The lessees, however, illegally filled up over 200 decimals of land, said sources.

Three such CNG stations that violated their lease agreements are Purbanchal Fuels CNG Ltd, CabExpress BD Ltd and Hightec CNG refuelling station -- owned by former BNP MPs Monirul Haque Chowdhury, GM Siraj, former commerce adviser Barkatullah Bulu and detained MP Salauddin's S Ahmad Foundation.

Liaquat-al-Faruque, additional chief engineer of Water Development Board (WDB), told The Daily Star, "On the one hand, the link road from the middle of Jatrabari-Kanchpur road to Narayanganj was constructed without proper drainage facilities. On the other hand, the CNG stations and other illegal structures are creating water logging in this area."

RHD's Superintendent Engineer Delowar Hossain said chief engineer of RHD has issued a letter regarding this issue to all its field offices asking them to cancel contracts of those who violated the lease agreements.

Moreover, Mozammel Haque, additional chief engineer of RHD and in charge of the DND area told The Daily Star, "In fact we are trying to work together with WDB and we will recover the canals." He, however, declined to make any comment when asked why they did not take any action against the encroachers earlier.

Although the authorities have been negligent over the issue, waterlogging victims living at Jatrabari, Dholaipar, Shekdi, Donia, Nayanagar, Kajla, Chhontek, Della, Dogair, and Matuail had clashed with the influential land grabbers on several occasions.

After locals requested the Purbanchal CNG authorities to comply with the approved design while constructing a box culvert, M Nazrul Islam, a Jatiya Chhatra Samaj leader, filed extortion cases against them with Jatrabari Police Station on behalf of the CNG station.

A few of Jatrabari residents on condition of anonymity said, "After 1/11, joint forces with the assistance from the locals demolished some parts of the boundary wall surrounding CabEx CNG station, but only a month later, they rebuilt the wall and resumed their operation."

Suffers in the DND project area are losing their patience and are willing to put up resistance against the illegal land grabbers.

Moslem Uddin Sardar, president of Jolaboddhota Niroshan O Poribesh Unnayan Committee, said, "For the last few years, RHD and WDB kept on saying that influential people had grabbed the land and the canals.... but we will not keep quiet over the issue any longer. We know how to fight."

After the local residents suffered from waterlogging for about a month, the WDB finally decided to reclaim the encroached land and water bodies. WDB has claimed to have recovered 30 kilometres of the 60 kilometre-long canal.

However, this correspondent during a visit in the area found all CNG stations still standing in full glory over the encroached land.

The RHD on July 10 and 11 served official notices, signed by Sanaul Haque, executive engineer of RHD, to establishments that grabbed land illegally. In the notices, the business establishment heads were asked to surrender the land that had been taken over illegally. They were also asked to build 10-foot-wide box culverts for proper drainage.

During an investigation, it was found that field level engineers of RHD hardly visit the sites to monitor the ongoing excavation work. They never even bother to warn the lessees when any violation is detected.

The land grabbers are taking advantage of the lax situation. For instance, CabEx was found building a four-foot-wide box culvert ignoring RHD's instructions to build a 10-foot one.

A disappointed local businessman, Nasimul Haidar Pintu, said, "Look, these people have already grabbed 300 decimals of land against the approved 27-30 decimals. Now they are digging the canal any way they please. The 10-foot space [in the approved box culvert] is not even wide enough to drain out the liquid waste and sewage. ...How would this four-foot culvert drain out the water?"

To resolve the drainage crisis in the area, the WDB has forwarded a project proposal worth Tk 233 crore to the government. The project proposes to reclaim canals in the DND area and install new pumps to pump out stagnated water.

The DND project area developed in 1968 as an agricultural pocket on 56.79 square kilometres of land in Fatullah and Siddhirganj thana of Narayanganj and Demra and Shyampur thana of Dhaka district. It was considered to be one of the most successful projects of the then government.

Institute of Water Modelling (IWM) in 2006 pointed out that serious water congestion inside the DND area has been caused due to absence of adequate drainage passage through Dhaka-Narayanganj link road. The affected points are Raghunathpur, (over DL-1 canal), Bhuiyanagar (over Drainage 1/ Pagla khal), Shibu market (Nol Khali/ Fatullah Khal), Chanmari (Fatullah branch khal) and Ishdair (NR-2 khal).

Furthermore, widening of Dhaka-Chittagong highway also created water pockets at three places -- Shonir Akhra (DL-4 canal), Shanarpar (Drainage-2) and Mouchak (Drainage 2).