Tawfique Ali

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.

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.

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.

Life and livelihood of elderly Nazimuddin Mollah of east Kandargaon in Sonargaon of Narayanganj is entirely dependent on his agricultural land.

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

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.

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.

Intermittent showers over the last few days have given the city residents a respite from dust pollution.

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.

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.

A nine-kilometre river embankment and three under-construction water regulators would save thousands of inhabitants of the coastal town of Mongla from recurrent tidal surge by the end of this year, said the local mayor and officials concerned.

With the risk of a major earthquake to cause colossal devastation any time, Bangladesh still lacks elementary awareness with preparedness lying in a deplorable state, according to eminent seismic experts.

Half of 1.5 million Khulna city dwellers are eyeing an end to their chronic water crisis as an ambitious scheme to supply 110 million

Authorities are still going ahead with fencing the plazas and sprawling lawns of the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban on “security grounds”, despite professionals' criticism that it would only undermine the parliament building's architectural grandeur. Security experts want a concrete wall and iron bars on top of it saying it was necessary to stop any approaching vehicles breaching the security, according to various sources.

Seventy-year-old Elahi Nawaz with a broken thighbone was lucky to get some 'room' for admission in a filthy abandoned space at the country's biggest public hospital attached to Dhaka Medical College.

The last remaining canals in the capital are being choked to death with the authorities doing little to nothing to save them, making the city vulnerable to waterlogging even after a moderate rain.

The city dwellers will have to face a severe water and drainage crisis in near future unless the wholesale destruction of floodplains and wetlands ceases immediately, experts have warned.

A ward councillor has been collecting money from businesses and residents in the capital's Arambagh, Fakirapool and adjacent areas

It was a traffic nightmare around Bashundhara City shopping mall in the capital yesterday.

Rajuk was well aware of inadequate on site safety measures at least three and a half months before the National Bank (NBL) foundation pit collapse, but it failed to act.