Helemul Alam

Dhaka city dwellers are suffering due to shortage of pipeline gas for two months and the authorities’ promises to solve the problem so far appear empty.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday expressed displeasure over frequent revisions of projects and directed the authorities to take legal action against those responsible for flawed project designs that ultimately push up costs.

Dhaka North City Corporation has taken an initiative to create an integrated “blue network”, connecting and reviving all the canals in 18 newly added wards to resolve the city’s perennial waterlogging.

The Modhumoti Model Town developers continue operations while the government authorities turn a blind eye -- both failing to comply with the highest court’s verdict on retaining the flood flow zone in Savar where the housing project was built illegally.

Around 4,200 shops in 18 markets of Dhaka South City Corporation have been running illegally for years, depriving DSCC a good amount of revenue.

Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Mayor Md Atiqul Islam yesterday announced the plan of constructing a multi-purpose truck terminal at Tejgaon to accommodate all trucks at the area and keep roads truck-free.

The plan to dismantle the iconic parabolic umbrella roof and plaza of Kamalapur Railway Station to make way for a multimodal hub and an extended metro rail line has stirred up an outcry among experts who say it will be like destroying part of the history of Dhaka.

Dhaka South City Corporation yesterday demolished several hundred illegal shops at Fulbaria Supermarket-2 in Gulistan, which was built violating the main design of the supermarket.

The government is yet to resume circular bus services on two routes in Dhaka, citing that they are not financially viable.

The government has decided in principle to hand over the drainage system of Dhaka city from Wasa to the two city corporations to solve the city’s longstanding waterlogging problem.

With trees and shrubs on the median strip thinning out and truckers parking vehicles on both sides of the road, Tejgaon-Satrasta is once again returning to its old self -- a troublesome thoroughfare for traffic.

Violating a High Court order, a 200-year-old building on Armenian Street in Dhaka’s Armanitola has been demolished by its present owners to make way for shops.

The government has taken up an initiative to set up six composite rice mills along with drying and storage facilities under public-private partnership (PPP) in the country’s southern region.

A Chinese company will set up the country’s first large-scale waste-to-energy plant for Dhaka North City Corporation areas.

Dengue fever appears to be reemerging in the country as the number of people infected with the mosquito-borne disease rose sharply this month.

Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) has set up a mass casualty management centre to handle influx of patients due to disastrous incidents like Rana Plaza or Nimtoli tragedies.

When a portion of his shop in Old Dhaka’s Chawkbazar was demolished by the men of lawmaker Haji Salim in April 2019, Aftab Ahmed did whatever he could to save the rest of his shop in a century-old building.

On July 29, 2018, a bus rammed into Dia Khanam Mim and Abdul Karim Rajib, both students of Shaheed Ramiz Uddin Cantonment College, killing them and injuring 12 others while they were standing on the pavement at a bus stop on Airport Road in the capital.

A spate of illnesses among officials of the two city corporations, including the Dhaka North mayor, caused the LGRD ministry yesterday to postpone a meeting that would have paved the way to handing control of the city’s drainage management from Dhaka Wasa to the city corporations.

After months of stalling, the Bus Route Rationalisation (BRR) committee -- formed to bring discipline to Dhaka’s chaotic bus operations -- is set to sit next week, to set up the first of the six proposed routes stretching from Ghatar Char in Basila to Narayanganj.