Chattogram City Corporation Mayor Shahadat Hossain has said no hospital or new structure will be allowed in the city’s CRB area.
“I spoke to the minister yesterday about hospital construction in CRB. I made it clear that no hospital or structure will ever be allowed there by cutting trees, and Chattogram residents will never accept it. The minister agreed with me,” he said.
He made the remarks on Sunday morning while speaking to reporters at Jamal Khan’s Lichutola area during the launch of a special canal‑drain cleaning programme.
If infrastructure is needed, the government may consider demolishing the old hospital and building a new one, he added.
Earlier in the day, the “CRB Rokkha Moncho” formed a human chain protesting hospital construction in the area, coinciding with Railway Minister Sheikh Robiul Alam’s visit and inspection of the proposed site.
Railway authorities said that in 2021 a plan was taken to build a 500‑bed hospital and a 100‑seat medical college on six acres of CRB land under a public‑private partnership with United Group financing. The contract stipulated the facility would be handed back to the railway after 50 years.
Environmentalists, cultural activists, and civil society representatives opposed the plan from the outset, demanding relocation. Under pressure, the project was suspended in 2022, and later that year the parliamentary standing committee also opposed hospital construction in CRB.
Civil society has again voiced concern over the minister’s fresh visit, saying commercial structures in a declared “cultural heritage” zone violate the Detailed Area Plan (DAP).
The Chattogram Development Authority declared CRB a cultural heritage site in 2008, gazetted in 2009. DAP prohibits commercial or high‑rise structures there.
A 2021 study identified 223 plant species in CRB, including endangered ones, alongside medicinal trees, historic structures, and graves. Experts say CRB itself is a “natural hospital,” warning that large‑scale construction would harm its environment.
