Tuhin Shubhra Adhikary

The numbers of Covid-19 patients at the hospitals and those needing treatment at Intensive Care Units have increased over the last one month, suggesting that there is still a long way to go to bring the pandemic under control.

With the Bangladesh Railway and the metro rail authorities locked in a row over the extension of MRT Line-6 from Motijheel to Kamalapur in the capital, the Prime Minister’s Office is set to step in to resolve the dispute.

Ignoring the risks of further spread of Covid-19, the government has lifted the restrictions on public movement and activities from today even though the coronavirus pandemic is showing no sign of abating.

The authorities have taken an initiative to connect two major projects -- MRT-6 and BRT -- through a “link service” between Diabari and House Building areas of the capital’s Uttara.

A Japanese company is likely to build a bridge over the Tentulia and Kalabadar rivers to connect island district Bhola with Barishal under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative.

The deadline for finishing the Padma bridge is going to be extended by more than a year largely due to the pandemic.

Although the number of new infections and deaths from Covid-19 are still on the rise, authorities concerned have undertaken moves to normalise operations of public transport.

A committee formed with three ministers to look into how the Road Transport Act-2018 could be implemented, is going to propose changes to the act.

Bus owners now want to operate their vehicles at full capacity despite the fact that the numbers of new infections and deaths from Covid-19 are still on the rise in the country.

Prianka Majumder had planned to stay in Bangladesh for 20 days when she along with her husband and daughter came to the country on March 8 to attend her cousin’s wedding in Barishal’s Gournadi.

“Seven policemen sent to jail”, “‘Drama by cops’ gone wrong”, “Bamna OC withdrawn for slapping ASI”, “Kotwali OC, 4 cops sued for extortion”, and “Durgapur OC withdrawn over torturing Jubo League leader”, were some of the headlines over the last few days.

Around nine years after its formation, the railways ministry has decided to transfer its office from Rail Bhaban, the headquarters of Bangladesh Railway, to the secretariat, according to a ministry document.

Whenever a major road accident occurs, people of the country see the same old tired response from the government.

Calls pour in to increase budget for the health sector but the health ministry, despite being a top recipient of the government’s development expenditure, could not even reach the national average of ADP implementation rate in the last six years.

More than two years have gone by but Ayesha Begum, wife of slain Teknaf municipality councillor Akramul Haque, still does not know whether there has been any investigation into her husband’s killing.

Bangladesh yesterday got the first tranche of the $1 billion loan pledged by Japan to bounce back from economic whiplash brought on by the global coronavirus pandemic.

Amnesty to black money has always been a nonstarter, so Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal’s move to tuck in the facility with added benefits in this fiscal year’s budget has left many scratching their heads.

The health ministry has decided to hold a meeting with the leaders of private medical associations in the wake of allegations against different private hospitals over Covid-19 test and treatment.

In the last two years after the road safety movement, the enactment of a tougher road transport act and the formation of a taskforce to curb road crashes have been the most talked about issues in the transport sector.

The number of daily Covid-19 tests has continued to decline over the past three weeks, although experts have all along been saying that increasing the number is crucial to stem the virus infection.