Staff Correspondent

Addressing the Parliament today, Local Government and Rural Development (LGRD) Minister Tazul Islam identified unfit vehicles, factory emissions, and dust from urbanisation as primary contributors to air pollution.

The minister said this while responding to a question from Dhaka MP Mohammad Sayeed Khokon.

While methane gas from landfills was deemed less critical, the minister outlined plans for modern, technology-based sanitary landfills and waste-to-energy projects to manage emissions effectively.

Chattogram MP M Abdul Latif inquired about the country's sanitation progress. In response, Minister Tazul highlighted that according to the Joint Monitoring Programme-2022, 84% of the nation has improved sanitation, with 39% having safely managed sanitation systems.

Further discussing urban development, he mentioned that the Dhaka South City Corporation is formulating regulations to control land development and construction. Implementing these regulations will bring a visible change to Dhaka, curbing uncontrolled building and managing population density, he assured.

In response to the question of AL MP elected from Bhola, Nurunnabi Chowdhury, Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque, who is also in charge of the Prime Minister's Office, said that in the current fiscal year 2023-2024, from July 2023 to 22 June 2024, a total of 1087 industrial projects have been registered through BIDA OSS.

This includes 961 local, 60 joint ventures and 66 foreign industrial projects. Against these registered industrial projects, the total investment proposals received at that time were worth Tk8,56,502 million, he added.

Out of this, the Minister said local investment proposals of Tk7,56,041 million and foreign investment proposals of Tk1,00,461 million have been received.

In response to the question of Awami League MP elected from Chattogram, M Abdul Latif, Minister Mozammel said that the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) will attract domestic and foreign investment in the private sector, provide better services, achieve effective coordination and create an investment-friendly environment, working towards Registration of domestic and foreign industrial projects is provided through BIDA.

He mentioned that BIDA has registered a total of 4,711 (local 4,130 and foreign 581) industrial projects from February 2019 to May 2024. “Against this, the proposed investment is Tk28,30,537.85 million.”