Resettlement Activities

Resettlement Plan (RP) : SASEC: Chittagong – Cox’s Bazar Railway Project, Phase-1, has been constructing a new 103.50 KM railway line from Dohazari to Cox’s Bazar via Ramu. The Executing Agency (EA) for the Project is Bangladesh Railway (BR) and the investment will be financed through a loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Government of Bangladesh acquired 562 ha (1387 Acres) of land to implement the project. The Project prepared a RP in 2016 to identify affected persons, their losses and to mitigate impacts of the Project. The RP was updated in 2021 and submitted to the ADB for their concurrence. By this time the updated RP has been concurred by ADB. The RP was prepared following the laws of the country and Safeguard policies of the ADB, SPS 2009. If there were gaps between SPS of ADB and the policies of GoB, the gaps were bridged up with the concern of the ADB and the GoB. The objectives of the RP were to avoid, minimize adverse impacts of project activities and to improve or at least restore livelihood of the affected persons up to the pre-project level.

The Project Impact are as follows in Primary and Updated RP.

The Table describes finally 561.54 hectors (ha) of land required for acquisition to implement the project. As a result 12,094 private households will be affected where 9,755 household will be economically affected and the rest 2,339 will require physical relocation. Among the private affected households there are 1067 Non-Titled Households who have no title on the land.

The RP contains an Entitlement Matrix (EM) which clarifies the affected persons, their eligibility to receive compensation and rate of compensation. The EM determines compensation for losses in replacement values. Replacement value equals the cost for replacing the affected properties.

Dohazari Cox’s Bazar Railway Project has formed 32 Grievance Redress Committees (GRC) at the Union level to settle the grievances resulted from acquisition and from impact of project works on environment. GRCs have been making significant contributions to smooth completions of project works by settling project disputes. In addition, the project has established a total of 06 (six) Property Valuation Advisory committees (PVAC).

The RP is being implemented by the Development Organization for Rural Poor (DORP), a nongovernment organization which has been recruited by Bangladesh Railway in February 2017. DORP has established a project office in Chittagong as well as two areas offices in Satkania and in Ramu. ADB has hired an External Monitor to conduct the monitoring of resettlement activities and their compliance with their policy.