Laldighi Park opens after a decade

Laldighi Park developed at the picturesque Laldighi, a lake in the centre of the port city, was inaugurated yesterday after a 10-year wait.
LGRD and Cooperatives Adviser Anwarul Iqbal inaugurated the park in a ceremony at 6:30pm.
Chittagong City Corporation took the initiative to develop the park in 1995 over an acre of land on the bank of the historic Laldighi dug in the British era.
The lake is only 25 feet from Laldighi Maidan.
The development work was completed in 1997 under a Tk 2.15 crore project but it could not be formally inaugurated due to bureaucratic red tape.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony Adviser Anwarul Iqbal said such parks are essential in every city of the country for offering city dwellers the scope to spend their leisure in touch with nature.
He said the government has decided to double the allowances of union parishad chairmen and members from next April. The ward commissioners of the city corporations would also enjoy better allowances soon, he added.
He urged different bodies of local government to workout income-generating plans.
Acting Chittagong City Corporation Mayor M Manjur Alam chaired the ceremony where Chittagong Divisional Commissioner Hossain Jamil and Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) Commissioner M Akbar Ali were special guests.
Earlier, the adviser inspected the under-construction Kanchannagar-Dhurang Road in Fatikchhari upazila and attended a views-exchange meeting with local union parishad chairmen and members.