Denmark to help govt set up mini fire service stations, waste-based power plants for Dhaka North

Considering the narrow roads and long distances, mini fire service stations will be built at all the wards of Dhaka North City Corporation, LGRD minister Md Tazul Islam said today.

The minister said this while talking to reporters at his office at the Secretariat, following a meeting with the Danish Ambassador to Bangladesh, Winnie Estrup Petersen.

The local government minister said there are many narrow roads in the capital and large fire service vehicles cannot enter those areas, lengthening response times of emergency services.

Moreover, the minister said the fire stations are far away and it takes a long time for a fire service vehicle to reach any incident spot. Therefore, it was not possible to extinguish fires quickly in many cases, leading to more damages.

"Therefore, the government is taking an action plan to set up mini fire stations as an alternative," the minister said.

Initially, 36 wards of North City Corporation will fall under this plan, he informed.

Tazul said Denmark will provide free training to the manpower who will work in this program.

He also said the Denmark government will finance 85 percent of the total cost of construction of these mini fire stations.

The minister also said a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between the LGRD ministry and Denmark to set up the mini fire service stations.

Tazul Islam said the Danish government was interested in investing in green energy and waste management, and that the issue of power generation from waste was discussed at the meeting as well.

The minister told reporters that the cabinet committee on procurement has already approved a project to generate electricity from waste under the jurisdiction of DNCC.

He said work related to the project is underway in Dhaka South, Gazipur and Narayanganj City Corporation.

The minister also mentioned that the government has a plan to build power plants that operate using waste in all the divisional cities -- including Chattogram and Khulna -- in phases.

He said competitive contracts would be signed with foreign companies to generate electricity from waste.

Replying to a question on municipalities and union councils, the minister also said that local government elections would be held on time and the government is determined to hold those elections in a free, fair and credible manner.