Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the housing project for Rohingya refugees at the Bhasan Char island in Noakhali on October 4.
Mohammad Habibul Kabir Chowdhury, an additional secretary at the disaster management and relief ministry who heads the Refugee Cell, revealed the date on Monday, reports bdnews24.com.
Habibul said 80 per cent of the project to house the Rohingyas on the island was completed.
The Bangladesh Navy is implementing the project under the Prime Minister’s Office at an estimated of Tk 23.12 billion. The project is to be fully completed with the government’s own funds by 2019.
“We will inspire the Rohingyas, show their leaders the island before relocating them. We also want the international organisations to visit the island,” Habibul said.
The UN and different other international donor groups visited the island on Saturday, he said.
“They are happy. But they have some findings. We will address those issues,” he added.
Besides homes, cyclone shelters, warehouses, a jetty and a dam have been constructed on the island, according to the additional secretary.
The cyclone shelters would also be used as health and education facilities, he said.
The Rohingyas will get the opportunity to farm fish and cattle on the island, according to Habibul.
Rohingya, Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Abul Kalam Azad said it might take ‘some time’ to start relocating the refugees to the island after the inauguration of the project.
On Aug 25 last year, the Myanmar army launched a crackdown on the Rohingyas, forcing over 700,000 of the ethnic minority to cross the border and take shelter in overcrowded refugee camps at Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh.
Bhashan Char, also known as Thengar Char, at Hatia is 10,000 acres at high tide and 15,000 acres at low tide.