The construction work of the permanent campus of Asian University for Woman (AUW) begins in Chittagong city today, after seven years into the groundbreaking.
The construction work of the permanent campus of Asian University
for Woman (AUW) begins in Chittagong city today, after seven years into
the groundbreaking.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as the chief
guest will lay the foundation stone of the AUW main campus in North
Pahartali, a picturesque hilly area of the port city.
AUW
Director (Space Planning and Special Project) Jerina Hossain said the
campus will be built over around 131.37 acres of hilly and plain land
and hoped to begin academy activities there in 2013.
AUW started
its academic calendar on the temporary campus constituted of five
rented buildings on Dampara MM Ali Road in the port city on April 6,
2008.
It began with the total enrolment of 129 students from
Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka while the
number of students now rose to more than 450.
Former prime
minister Khaleda Zia unveiled a plaque for the construction of AUW
campus and attended the groundbreaking ceremony on January 13, 2004.
For
the delay in the construction, a section of BNP led four-party
coalition government was blamed, which was said to try to shift the
campus to Bogra.
Absence of the loop road is another cause.
Before building the campus, it became necessary to construct a loop
road making diversion of Dhaka-Chittagong Highway-Bayezid Bostami
connecting road by the north side of the university.
Responding
to the need of AUW, Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) had made a
DPP (Development Project Proforma) to construct the loop road at an
estimated cost of over Tk 19.68 crore.
But the loop road
project got caught in different complexities delaying the campus
construction. After the present government was formed, the CDA
constructed the road and handed it over to AUW authority.
AUW
campus is being built with support of individual philanthropists from
different countries, including the USA, Italy, Hong Kong, Australia,
Thailand, Japan, and Kuwait.
The university started its journey
with the vision and commitment to educating the young women with
talents to take up the future leadership across the globe.
