20km Gazipur-Airport Route: Work for rapid bus service starts in 2012

Implementation of rapid bus service project in the Gazipur to airport route begins early next year and to be completed by the end of 2013, said officials concerned at a workshop at a city hotel Wednesday.
Roads and Highways Department (RHD) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) jointly organised the workshop on presentation of the draft of final feasibility report on Greater Dhaka Sustainable Urban Transport Corridor Project.
Md Aminur Rahman Lasker, project director, said the 20-kilometre double-lane rapid bus service (Bus Rapid Transit, BRT) route from Gazipur to Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport will have a seven-metre wide dedicated lane at the centre of the road.
"We will widen the existing 15-metre road with the land available at RHD's ownership and also through acquisition of land where necessary for the other commuters," he said.
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10 structures on Kalyanpur canal knocked down

Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) with the help of district administration removed around ten semi-concrete structures Wednesday as part of an ongoing eviction drive to free a stretch of city's Kalyanpur main canal.
They however spared three mosques, portions of which were built on the canal.
Ruhul Amin, executive engineer of Wasa, said they decided to spare those considering religious sentiment.
Alid Mainul Amin, executive magistrate of Dhaka district administration, said he asked the management committees to remove the illegal portions.
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Jaglul to join breakfast with US president

Dr Jaglul A Mozumdar, also vice district governor of Lions District 315 A-1, has been invited to the annual national prayer breakfast Thursday (February 3) in Washington DC with the president and top government officials of the US, says a press release.
Following the session, he will participate in bilateral discussion with US president and other world delegates on the upcoming peace and development issues.
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Ex-BNP minister Ziaul Haque acquitted from charges

A Dhaka court Wednesday cancelled a lower court verdict and acquitted former BNP state minister Ziaul Haq Zia of a case filed for providing false information to Rajuk for getting government flat and plot in the city.
Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Waliul Islam on July 1, 2008 sentenced Zia to ten years' imprisonment and fined him Tk 10,000, in default of which he will have to serve one more year in jail for committing such offences. Judge Kader Newaz of the Special Judge's Court-2 passed the order following an appeal made by Zia against the lower court verdict.
On July 11 of 2007, CID Inspector Monir Hossain filed the case against Zia with Motijheel Police Station.
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Two city shop staff shot

Alleged extortionists shot two employees of a tailor's shop at city's Gendaria Wednesday.
The injured employees Omor Faruq, 30 and Jahangir Alam, 33, of M Muslim Tailors at Satish Sarkar road, were rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Omor said he and four employees were working inside the shop when two armed youths entered around 2:10pm.
The youths fired four to five rounds of bullets, one of which hit his right leg, while Jahangir received two bullets on the chest and right wrist, he said.
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Call to conserve water bodies

Speakers at a discussion meeting Wednesday urged the government to take effective measures to conserve wetlands to protect environment and biodiversity.
They stressed on the need to build national consensus to preserve and conserve wetlands according to Ramsar Convention, an intergovernmental treaty to maintain ecological character of wetlands.
They were speaking at the discussion jointly organised by Ministry of Environment and Forest and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to mark World Wetlands Day at the city's Cirdap auditorium, said a press release.
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BDR Mutiny: Charges against 50 accused read out

Havildar Tariqul Islam in collaboration with two other soldiers of BDR Sadar Rifle Battalion had beaten Major Mostafa Asaduzzaman brutally with belts in front of the flag pole during the mutiny at Pilkhana.
Nayek Shahjahan of the same battalion tortured Major Shahnewaz inhumanly after tying him up to a coconut tree.
The two army officers were later murdered, said Lt Col Abu Masud, the prosecutor of a BDR mutiny case, Wednesday in his statement.
He said this as the special court-9, set up to try the mutineers of Sadar Rifle Battalion, carried out its proceeding for the third day at the Darbar Hall in Pilkhana.
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