The Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) has alerted different government agencies not to carry out any development work related to enhancing civic amenity without informing it for ensuring better coordination in work.
"You will do your work. But inform us first and take our permission for better coordination," said DNCC Mayor Annisul Huq, mentioning obligation of the government organisations to the city corporation as per City Corporation Act 2009.
The DNCC mayor said these while moderating a coordination meeting in the city on Wednesday in presence of the heads of 26 government agencies including the service organisations.
DNCC organised the first such meeting with the heads as per the directives of Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to accelerate development works in the capital through ensuring coordination among the government agencies concerned.
The meeting discussed over 22 agenda, including eradicating traffic jam at certain points, removing hawkers and stopping illegal occupation of streets, water stagnation, recovering parks, destruction of illegal and risky structures, ending commercial activities in residential areas, construction of kitchen markets, and operation of Dhaka Chaka bus service for Gulshan area.
Heads and representatives of different government agencies attended the meeting, including Dhaka divisional and district administrations, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakhya, Rapid Action Battalion, Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Bangladesh Power Development Board, Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority, National Housing Authority, Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority, directorates of environment, health and primary education, Bangladesh Railway, Public Works Department (PWD), Roads and Highways Department (RHD), Local Government and Engineering Department, Department of Architecture, Bangladesh Telecommunication Company Ltd, and Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd.
Heads of some government agencies, including Titas Gas, PWD, RHD, and National Housing Authority, were not present in the meeting. But they earlier informed DNCC of their other preoccupations. Councillors of different wards of DNCC were also present.
The mayor said DNCC will not allow placement of any billboards in the city by any of the agencies without knowledge of the corporation, and alerted those which have already invited tenders in this connection.
He also said any infrastructure development work, including digging roads, will not be allowed, and permission must be sought six months before the work.
The DNCC mayor specifically blamed RHD for not informing about its activities in Banani and Tongi areas. He sought cooperation from BRTA to provide route permit to the special bus service in Gulshan area.
The meeting was informed that in performing various works, like - carrying and dumping waste materials, road repair and fixing street lights etc, the city corporation also faces legal and paper-based obstruction from different government agencies.
The mayor in this regard sought cooperation from PWD, Bridge Division and RHD to hand over schedule of their respective roads to DNCC to facilitate road repair and freeing of streets with due responsibility.
DNCC representatives also placed a demand of several hundred acres of land to set up Nagar Bhaban, secondary transfer station for waste, and bus-truck terminals for helping the corporation to keep the city clean, green and traffic-jam free.
The meeting also informed that DNCC faces problem in mosquito killing, as many city roads and water-bodies are owned by different government agencies.
Subsequently, the mayor sought cooperation from the government agencies to share copy of their respective city-related plans, including RAJUK's master-plan and architect Lui Kahn's master-plan.
The meeting later decided to sit every three to four months to review progress of the taken decisions. It was also informed that a sub-committee on traffic jam will also sit regularly in a month to coordinate among themselves regarding day-to-day activities.