8,000 flats for insolvent FFs

The government is going to construct 8,000 flats throughout the country for distributing those among insolvent freedom fighters free of cost.

Yesterday, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) at a meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair, approved the project involving the construction of the multi-storey buildings at district and upazila levels at a cost of Tk 2,273 crore.

After the meeting, the planning minister said the project has been taken to rehabilitate insolvent freedom fighters. It will be completed by 2020, he added.

According to the planning ministry proposal, all insolvent freedom fighters are elderly and unable to earn; therefore, it is not possible for them to buy flats. In fiscal year 2010-11, the Liberation War affairs ministry took a project to construct 2,971 residential houses on its own land with government funds. The work of the project is going on.

In continuation of the project, the government has taken the new initiative to construct 532 buildings, each five-storey, through acquisition of land in different districts and upazilas. Of those, the size of each of the flats will be 982 square feet with three bedrooms, one drawing-cum-dining, two bathrooms and a balcony. 

Yesterday, a total of seven projects were approved by the Ecnec involving a cost of Tk 7,466 crore.

The Ecnec also okayed another project for the 2nd phase of "Important Urban Infrastructure Development" involving Tk 3,465 crore. Under the project, small infrastructures like roads, culverts and drains will be developed in 281 municipalities.

The Ecnec also gave nod to another project for building climate-tolerant infrastructures in 20 upazilas of Satkhira, Bhola and Barguna districts at a cost of Tk 662 crore.