RDRS Bangladesh and CARE Bangladesh in collaboration with Rangpur municipality will implement the programme. The initial cost of the project is Tk. 20 crore and it will start early February this year.

On implementation of the programme, about 75 thousand families under Rangpur municipality will be brought under direct drainage network, sources said.

A meeting of the local elite, stakeholders and local administration was held on Friday at the local town hall. A citizens' committee was formed to implement the programme.

Shyamsundari Canal, the main outlet that connects all the drains in the town is one of the heritages of Rangpur.

So far the history of Rangpur goes various diseases including small pox, diarrhoea, and cholera used to plague the town during the late Nineteenth Century.

A huge number of people of the town died of these diseases that time.

The then Zaminder of Rangpur, Janokibollov, engaged renowned physicians to find the causes of the diseases.

The physicians pointed out that germs of contagious diseases were growing in the town due to the lack of proper sanitation and drainage system.

They advised the Zaminder to dig a canal surrounding the town for drainage.

The Zaminder in 1890 dug the 16 km long and 100 m wide canal surrounding the town. He named it after his mother Shyamsundari.

The canal starts from the upstream of the river Ghagot and falls in the downstream of the same river.

For about 150 years, Shyam-sundari Canal served as the major means of drainage and sanitation of the town. But lack of renovation for long turned the canal into a very narrow stream and dysfunctional. Taking advantage, grabbers built structures on either side of it.

People of the town have long been demanding re-excavation of the canal for the sake of drainage, sanitation and healthy environment.