Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) Mayor Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh on Sunday said that the corporation is working to improve Dhaka's ranking in the Global Liveability Index published by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
Taposh made the remark at a MoU signing ceremony at a city hotel Sunday afternoon, reports UNB.
The DSCC mayor said that Dhaka has moved up four places in the global index, which shows that DSCC's activities to turn the city into a liveable place have proved to be effective.
"DSCC is continuously working to make the city's situation better, which will result in more improvement in Dhaka's position in the index," said Taposh.
He added that the Water Development Board (WDB) has handed over the inactive sluice gates to DSCC at Sunday's event.
"We'll start the maintenance works of these sluice gates from tomorrow (Monday). Senior Secretary of the Water Resources Ministry has said that these sluice gates are old-fashioned and can't be activated. We'll try our best to turn these sluice gates active," said Taposh.
Attending the event as chief guest, Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives (LGRD) Minister Md Tazul Islam said that all the current bridges over Dhaka's rivers will be demolished and new bridges will be built to make the rivers more navigable.
"The current bridges over various rivers in Dhaka aren't suitable for navigation. We've already marked these bridges and provided directions to demolish them. Traffic pressure in Dhaka city will decrease once river routes are activated," said Tazul.
Tazul added that the waterlogging problem has improved a lot under DSCC's various measures this year.
"The two city corporations of Dhaka are conducting many initiatives since receiving the jurisdiction of various canals from Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA). Besides, the two city corporations are also recovering many illegal canals and places in the city. As a result, the waterlogging problem of Dhaka city has improved to a great extent," Tazul added.
State Minister for Water Resources Zahid Faruk, State Minister for LGRD Swapan Bhattacharjee, Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Mayor Md Atiqul Islam, and Senior Secretary of Water Resources Ministry Kabir Bin Anwar, among others, spoke at the event.