Helemul Alam

A lack of maintenance of septic tanks and buildings, coupled with blocked ventilation ways are putting the capital’s buildings at huge risk of explosion. This newspaper yesterday reached out to multiple urban planning experts following the Gulistan explosion, who all echoed the same.

It was a Tuesday afternoon. Namima Binte Salma and Afraaz Zuhain Khan, two preschool children, were playing in a park at Lalmatia block-D. They appeared cheerful as they finally had the opportunity to take a breather out in the open, after a long time.

The government is yet to form an authority dedicated to enforce the revised Bangladesh National Building Code, the gazette of which was issued two years ago.

The lack of designated parking spaces for commercial buildings, markets, and city buses has led to vehicles being parked on the roads, causing severe gridlocks and huge loss of productivity

It’s a 10-minute walk from Farmgate’s Ananda Cinema Hall to the Panthapath intersection through Green Road. However, it takes 20 minutes to cross this 700-metre road, thanks to illegal occupants of the footpath

“We have many problems. We live with waterlogging and a lack of pure drinking water. But we never complain. This place to live is all we have. Where will we go if we are evicted?” asked Meghla, a 30-year-old cleaner from the Telegu community who lives in Outfall Colony-14 of Jatrabari’s Dhalpur.

"It is very important to construct earthquake-resilient buildings and for this, all buildings of Dhaka city will have to be tracked."

In a shocking development, Dhaka South City Corporation has allowed a private entity to construct a food court at the historic Bahadur Shah Park -- much to the dismay of locals and eminent citizens.

Dhaka dwellers and commuters suffered immensely yesterday as traffic came to a standstill on the Airport Road. Thousands were stuck for hours on end and many missed appointments, meetings and even flights.

After spending Tk 119 crore over 15 years on traffic lights that came to nought, Dhaka South City Corporation has moved to install an artificial intelligence-driven signalling system which experts fear is destined to fail.

The High Court yesterday asked the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha to explain the disappearances of around 30,000 documents from Rajuk servers.

At least 281 people succumbed to dengue last year, while 62,382 patients were hospitalised, the highest deaths and second-highest cases ever recorded in the country.

Mohammad Sohel, an employee at a firm, did not get metro tickets after waiting in a long queue for around three hours at Agargaon Station yesterday.

Dhaka South City Corporation has recently imposed an annual tax of Tk 500 per pet dog and Tk 1,000 for horses and deer -- drawing huge flak from animal rights activists and pet owners.

Allaying public fears of violence, the BNP yesterday held its Dhaka rally peacefully and unveiled a 10-point demand to “restore democracy”.

As the number of dengue cases has started to reduce since mid-November, experts urged the city corporations to take comprehensive plans to control Aedes mosquitoes throughout the year.

The number of dengue patients hospitalised across the country this year is almost 50,000, the second time this has happened in Bangladesh. 

At least five dengue patients died while 820 others were admitted to different hospitals across the country in 24 hours until yesterday morning.

The authorities' failure to take proper measures early this year has led to the deadly dengue outbreak and the hot and humid weather only made matters worse, experts say.

The dengue situation in the country is alarming as the mosquito-borne virus has already spread to 60 districts.