Helemul Alam

Taslima Begum has been wading through knee-deep wastewater to get home for the last nine months. The wastewater comes from nearby factories at Shyampur, which clog the streets with no way to pass through drains. As a result, the area has remained submerged for so long.

Over the last 15 years, the government has spent Tk 119 crore to upgrade Dhaka’s traffic signal system. The plan involved some ambitious experiments to modernise the capital’s traffic control system, including digitising signal lights and installing timer countdown and digital display boards in some major intersections.

December, when the dry season comfortably sets in, should had been a time when the country wouldn’t have  to worry about dengue. And yet, 87 patients were being treated in hospitals across the country till the last day of 2021, indicating that the vector-borne disease has now become an endemic in Bangladesh.

The first day of the much-awaited Nagar Paribahan bus service-from Ghatarchar to Kanchpur under one authority was greeted with mixed reactions yesterday.

It has been one year since authorities announced construction of a multi-purpose truck terminal at the capital’s Tejgaon to accommodate all trucks and keep Satrasta-Tejgaon road free of vehicles.

After missing two deadlines, the government is going to inaugurate the long-awaited underpass at the capital’s Airport road this month.

After the earthquake of 6.1 magnitude, which had the epicentre in Myanmar, was felt in Dhaka, Chattogram and some other parts of the country early yesterday, urban planners said the jolt should be taken as a wake up call.

Almost 60 percent garbage collecting vehicles of Dhaka South City Corporation are driven by contractual or proxy drivers, said a DSCC source.

A total of 120 brand new, green-coloured buses will ply Ghatarchar-Kanchpur route under a single authority on a pilot basis from December 1, as part of the government’s bus route rationalisation initiative.

It was around 5 o’clock in the morning.

Under normal circumstances, November’s dry weather was supposed to cause the Aedes mosquito population to decline. But this year, around 150 dengue patients are still being hospitalised daily, illustrating a concerning picture of the vector-borne disease.

When Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) inaugurated renovation work for the capital’s Osmani Udyan back in January 2018, it had promised to complete it in 10 months.

Nasirakanda’s Moharram Ali has to visit the hospital at least twice every month to have his leg checked. It got damaged severely due to a road accident nine months back.

Sixty-five-year-old Kulsum left her home at Postogola yesterday morning to visit her ailing sister living in Shyampur. She, accompanied by her niece Jahanara, took a rickshaw, which got on Postogola-Chashara road, a thoroughfare full of potholes.

With the country’s temperature remaining abnormally high over the last two months, the number of patients suffering from different infectious diseases has gone up, with children being the worst sufferers and leaving hospitals struggling with an influx of treatment seekers.

Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) has taken up an elaborate plan to construct an eco-park using the retention areas at the capital’s Kalyanpur, a large part of which are currently encroached.

Dengue became endemic in the country in 2000, but the government is yet to put in place an automated system that comes up with the exact number of cases, crucial to get a clear picture of the situation.

In a city already devoid of adequate playgrounds, there is a field in Old Dhaka’s Gendaria area that has not only stood the test of time but also remains a testament to the capital’s sporting legacy.

Though the spread of dengue outside Dhaka started comparatively late, the growing number of cases shows that the situation may soon take a turn for the worse if necessary measures are not taken immediately to curb further spread, said experts and entomologists.

Experts have expressed fear that the dengue fever may spread further in the country this year if the authorities concerned do not take appropriate measures before reopening educational institutions.