Tawfique Ali

12 acres of Meghna leased out illegally

The district administration in Munshiganj violated law by leasing out a 12-acre foreshore and floodplains of the Meghna in Char Betagi, said National River Conservation Commission Chairman Muzibur Rahman Howlader.

4y ago

Fresh onslaught on Meghna

A river under onslaught. An open defiance of a High Court order. And inept river custodians.

5y ago

Curious foreign trip

A team of soon-to-retire engineers and an administration official are leaving for the US and the UK on a two-week trip ostensibly to learn about digging canals, protecting river banks, restoring embankments, and dredging rivers, which they had been doing for over three decades.

5y ago

IF RIVERS DIE, SO WILL WE

What was once considered encroachment has become outright murder. But the seriousness of the crime has done little to deter a carnival of corruption plaguing river management.

5y ago

2009 HC Verdict: What the court directed and what’s been done

The apex court in 2009 directed the government to demarcate the original territory of the four Dhaka rivers -- Buriganga, Turag, Balu Shitalakhya -- restore those rivers to their original state and protect them against grabbing and from pollution.

5y ago

95pc structures in Rajuk area non-compliant

Over 95 percent of the structures under Rajuk’s jurisdiction were built without building approval, according to survey findings for the ongoing revision of the capital city’s Detailed Area Plan (DAP).

5y ago

National Building Code: Disregarded all along

Despite tragic loss of lives and properties in repeated building disasters, the country’s national building code has been lying largely unimplemented for 26 years, getting obsolete in the absence of an enforcement authority, said leading professionals.

5y ago

Authorities’ inaction put rivers in peril

The deplorable conditions of the rivers around Dhaka city and elsewhere in the country due to encroachment and pollution are the result of inaction of the river custodians and their complicity with the grabbers for decades, National River Conservation Commission Chairman Muzibur Rahman Howlader has said.

5y ago
March 31, 2019
March 31, 2019

Nothing is right

The Rajuk came to know about 12 years ago that the Faruque-Rupayan Tower was built in violation of the approved plan, but it remained silent for all these years.

March 24, 2019
March 24, 2019

Purbachal Project: CONCEPT lost on REVISIONS

Rajuk is set to turn land originally earmarked for education and environment preservation into commercial and business plots in its 6,227-acre Purbachal New Town project in the city's outskirts.

March 22, 2019
March 22, 2019

Waste of water, way to disaster

The next world war will be over water. And Bangladesh appears to be most oblivious of all amidst the grim global forecast.

March 4, 2019
March 4, 2019

Spending on metro must be justified

The money spent on an expensive project like metro rail must be justified by ensuring it provides quality and optimum service to the public, said the country director of Asian Development Bank (ADB).

February 22, 2019
February 22, 2019

Old town sends out an SOS

Old Dhaka will remain vulnerable to disasters like the ones in Nimtoli and Chawkbazar unless it undergoes redevelopment, say urban planners.

February 9, 2019
February 9, 2019

Meghna too not spared

Nothing seems to scare away the river grabbers. Amid impassioned calls from the judiciary, environmentalists and the media to save the country's last surviving rivers, a private company is building two slipways in the Meghna river in Munshiganj.

February 4, 2019
February 4, 2019

Integration the key

Once the much-hyped metro rail starts operation between Uttara north and Agargaon later this year, it will not bring a significant change in Dhaka city's transport service unless it is integrated with conventional transport modes, experts said.

February 3, 2019
February 3, 2019

Bus easier, cheaper

Once built two decades from now, the five metro rail lines costing around $27.6 billion would serve only 11.5 percent of city passengers, said experts citing the capital's transport master plan.

November 15, 2018
November 15, 2018

Metro rail system to ease Dhaka's traffic gridlock

With the physical progress of the country's maiden 20km metro rail service already visible across the capital city, implementation of four more proposed metro lines is simultaneously going ahead as a measure for partially relieving the capital city of its perennial traffic congestion.

November 7, 2018
November 7, 2018

Unfounded lists spark concern, confusion

Two unsubstantiated lists of tribal refugees and internally-displaced persons have not only caused public outrage in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), but also an apprehension about security threat among the security forces.