Clicky
National, Front Page

No more unplanned urbanisation: PM

7 housing projects for govt high officials


Published : 15 Jul 2019 09:13 PM | Updated : 07 Sep 2020 08:38 PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Monday said that the government would not allow any more unplanned urbanisation and industrialisation in the country. Stressing the importance of planned development, the PM said that now there is no scope to build a building or set up an industry just because one has money.

"We don’t want to let anyone do that, we’re setting up 100 economic zones. The BSCIC industrial estates established by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman will be expanded. We’ll carry on industrialisation in a planned way. Schools, colleges and everything will be set up in a planned way," she said. The prime minister said this while inaugurating new buildings for ministries, senior secretaries, secretaries and grade-1 employees of the government from Eskaton Garden area in the city.

She opened seven housing development projects for the cabinet members, government officials and employees as well as the people affected by the schemes. Requesting the architects to make the designs of buildings keeping in mind the climate and weather of the country, she said the government wants to formulate a master plan for every mega city, district and upazila, and is working accordingly.

She mentioned that there will be croplands, playgrounds and recreational places apart from accommodation facilities. "We’ve to build each village with modern facilities. I think we’ve to do everything in a planned way." The prime minister said the government is providing all sorts of facilities to public servants for the sake of the county's development.

"We're arranging every sort of facilities for them just for one reason: development of the country. We've arranged loans for them to purchase flats, we've arranged a system so that they could buy vehicles, we've arranged various facilities for them from all aspects," she said. Talking about the seven housing development projects for government officers, she said “We inaugurated 1671 flats under seven schemes with having modern facilities for cabinet members, secretaries, other government officials and employees as well as the affected people.”

BSS adds: Four of the seven projects have been completed by Public Works Department while three others by National Housing Authority and Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) under the Housing and Public Works Ministry. The prime minister said, “I hope the government officers and employees will give more attention to discharge their duties getting residence facilities in the project area with beautiful environment.”

She said that she had already given instructions to increase accommodation facilities for the government officials and employees to 40 percent in Dhaka which was only 8 percent in 2014. “We are set to build 6,350 flats under 16 projects of the Housing and Public Works Ministry and there have been allocation for building 1,674 more flats under 13 other schemes,” she said.

Besides, the work of constructing 398 flats in 20 abandoned house in Gulshan, Dhanmondi and Mohammadpur areas here and 1824 flats and 64 dormitories in 51 abandoned houses in Chattogram is going on while initiatives have already been taken to build 317 flats by acquiring 15 more abandoned houses, she informed.

“We have already built 1512 flats for the Supreme Court judges, officers and employees of parliament secretariat as well as other government officers and employees and distributed those to them,” she added. Sheikh Hasina said that her government has already taken initiative to construct 2816 dormitories in 64 districts to increase the housing facilities for the government officials and employees.

Mentioning that her government has been working for accommodation for all, saying “We have already developed a total of 33,526 plots and built 8,922 flats for selling those to lower and middle income people. Of those, 6636 flats under the third phase of Uttara apartment project have already been opened.”
The prime minister said development of 18,105 more flats and building of 8,039 flats are also going on, adding “We have taken initiatives to develop 18,148 plots and one lakh 41 thousand and 687 flats across the country.”

The housing problem of the citizens will be reduced significantly upon completion of the flats development works, she continued. “We don’t want any people to live in the slum. So we are now building flats for slum dwellers in Dhaka. Work on constructing 533 flats is going on in Mirpur and have a plan to build 16,000 more flats for them,” she said.

“We have formulated laws for a well-planned urbanisation and enacted law for making time-befitting Housing and Building Research Institute Ordinance,” she said. The prime minister later visited one of the three buildings constructed for grade one government officers on Eskaton Garden Road in the city. Housing and Public Works Minister S.M. Rezaul Karim and its secretary Md Shahid Ullah Khandaker spoke on the occasion. A video documentary on the seven projects was also screened at the function. Inaugurating the seven projects, Sheikh Hasina said, “We inaugurated 1671 flats under seven