Tawfique Ali

Already grappled with soaring prices of essentials, tenants in the capital are likely to find themselves in more trouble as the authorities are increasing the tax on holdings manifold. Although the building owners are to pay the tax, the tenants fear they will have to bear the brunt in the end. They say the landlords will realise a major part of the revised amount from them.

Rajuk's digital services for land clearance and building construction permit, introduced almost two years ago for some city areas, are hardly getting any response from the service seekers.

A moderate rain for a couple of hours and much of the capital goes under ankle to knee-deep water. Why?

Stern governance and empowered elected local bodies should help alleviate Dhaka city's current messiness and the stigma of poor liveability, said former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit in an interview with The Daily Star.

Blessed with a 110km waterway network of four rivers, Dhaka could have been one of the world's best cities with rich environmental and ecological diversity and great sources of drinking water. The reality, however, is simply the opposite as the rivers are dying a slow death due to years of encroachment and pollution, improper demarcation and inadequate dredging.

Uttaran cooperative housing society, with powerful people as its members, has flattened around 150 acres of hilly land and cut down thousands of trees in Kolatoli of Cox's Bazar town for its housing estate.

Inadequate storm-water drainage system managed by seven different authorities with little coordination among themselves is the reason why Dhaka streets suffer deluge every time there is moderate rain. The authorities do their job haphazardly. They hardly know what the others are doing, say officials concerned.

Although it is the job of the city corporations, the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has embarked on a Tk 90 crore beautification and pavement maintenance work on the capital's Airport Road.

Business of The Raintree Dhaka hotel is going on at a residential building in Banani with a High Court order staying the authorities

Slow tender bidding process has pushed the metro rail construction work nearly a year behind schedule. Of the eight components of the project, the ground work of one was ongoing. Even though prequalification of bidders in the remaining seven components was done, the final contracts have not been signed yet.

Seven years after the deadly chemical fire claiming 124 lives in Nimtoli, parts of densely-populated Old Dhaka still have extremely hazardous stocks of flammable chemicals without any safety measures whatsoever.

It was around 7:30am on a Wednesday. The street towards the Banani intersection from Mohakhali near the capital's Sainik Club was bustling with speedy vehicles. Pedestrians, including office-goers, schoolkids and garment workers, were hurrying along the pavement.

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.