Helemul Alam

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.

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

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.

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.

Since the prime minister “praises” Wasa Managing Director Taqsem A Khan, the majority of its board members support extending his tenure.

First-grader Hasibur Rahman Anu was elated while playing at the eastern side of the Hazi Abdul Alim playground in Old Dhaka on Saturday.

Dhaka has not made it to the list of 109 smart cities in the world, according to the 2020 Smart City Index.

Lutfur Rahman, a resident of Shuritola, never thought he would reach such a point in his life where he would have to purchase essentials from a government subsidised OMS truck. But there he was yesterday, standing in a long queue leading up to a truck that came to his area.

Onion prices have shot up dramatically in the country due to panic buying by consumers and price gouging by wholesalers in the immediate aftermath of India’s decision on Monday to suspend onion exports.

Although plying of battery-run rickshaws and rickshaw-vans in the capital is illegal, no one gets surprised when they see these vehicles parked at the corner of a street or moving throughout the alleys in full speed.

For the last one month, Akbar Hossain has been torn between two difficult choices: send his wife and children to the village or reduce the amount of money he sends his elderly parents.

Although the government has permitted reopening of hotels, resorts and amusement parks since August, tour and hotel operators around Dhaka are still struggling to run their businesses due to low number of holidaymakers.

The government has made little progress in relocating hazardous chemical businesses and warehouses from Old Dhaka, leaving the residents in constant fear following the two devastating fire incidents that claimed over 200 lives.