Sifayet Ullah

Widow of Sitakunda shipbreaking victim says compensation offers only temporary security for her and two young sons

Plan would give passengers from Narsingdi, Brahmanbaria, Cumilla and Feni direct train access to the tourist city

Ferdous Steel Ship Recycling Industries was cutting the scrap vessel, MT Rasi, without a valid environmental clearance at its Sitakunda yard in Chattogram, where nine workers died from toxic gas inhalation inside the vessel on August 14.

Though many of Bangladesh’s shipbreaking yards have gone green on paper, workers continue to face deadly safety hazards, with at least 84 accidents recorded since the Hong Kong Convention came into force last year.

Palash Jaladas, 35, was only weeks away from becoming a father. His wife, Bhumika, is seven and a half months pregnant, and the couple had been waiting for the arrival of their first child, imagining how their lives would change once the baby came.

The Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) converted part of the Mithachhara canal in Chattogram’s Hathazari upazila to facilitate the construction of a power plant, disrupting the key waterway’s natural flow and threatening local livelihoods and the environment.

The long-awaited Panchpukuria-Siddhashram bridge over the Halda river in Chattogram’s Fatikchhari upazila remains incomplete even though the stipulated deadline expired last month.

Forest department orders work stopped after foundation completed inside protected area