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.
4y 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.
4y 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
February 19, 2017
Over 1,000 city malls at fire risk
Over a thousand shopping malls and markets in the capital were built without mandatory fire-safety clearance and those are now posing a serious threat, said fire department top officials.
January 16, 2017
Dumping sand on farmland
It was a foggy winter morning in Kandargaon village of Sonargaon. Elderly farmer Hashem Ali, wrapped in a shawl and a woollen cap on, was frantically wandering around his bed of paddy seedlings in the middle of the vast farmland on the Meghna in Narayanganj.
November 6, 2016
Time to declare Turag dead
In the end, nobody would save the Turag river. Left at the mercy of ruthless land grabbers who continue to ravage one of Dhaka's lifelines, the river is only a shadow of its once mighty self.
October 24, 2016
Farmland being fed with sand
Life and livelihood of elderly Nazimuddin Mollah of east Kandargaon in Sonargaon of Narayanganj is entirely dependent on his agricultural land.
June 26, 2016
In 37 minutes
Construction work of the first metro rail service in the capital begins today with an aim to open half of the 20km metro line by the end
June 5, 2016
Change to create more chaos
The extended Moghbazar Flyover ramp near Sonargaon Hotel may make the already crammed street even more congested, according to an expert and project officials. Moreover, a 50-metre carriageway deck of the ramp, already built in front of the Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (popularly known as the FDC) at a cost of around Tk 9.5 crore, would now have to be demolished, said a project official.
May 7, 2016
Freeing illegally occupied roads, sites was not easy
Annisul Huq and Sayeed Khokon took oath as mayors respectively of Dhaka North and South City Corporations on May 6 last year. They took over offices with serious pledges and commitments to bring about qualitative changes in delivering civic services.
April 6, 2016
Rain eases dust menace
Intermittent showers over the last few days have given the city residents a respite from dust pollution.
February 2, 2016
Planned urbanisation and environment
The three-decade old real estate sector has predominantly been a business composed of private entrepreneurs catering to the needs of the urban upper middle class, not concerning itself with the low income groups. Public sector initiatives have been limited to the development of some townships and residential colonies mostly concentrated in the capital. As a result, equitable housing opportunities remain a far cry for most urban-dwellers.
January 22, 2016
Concrete block in city's heart
Once built, the 8.70km Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover is set to become a permanent woe for Dhaka, with leading experts describing the Tk 1,219 crore structure as a massive block in the heart of the city. Around a year into the construction work in early 2014, it was detected by sheer chance that the much-hyped flyover was being built on a grossly faulty layout configuration without vital right-turn provisions and had a number of other flaws with serious consequences.
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