Chandpur Correspondent 

Chandpur district headquarter municipality built on the ancient port city and estuary of three rivers has undergone extensive development work and several development projects are underway.

The present municipal council has continued development work to make this municipality beautiful with first-class tourism potential.

Specially the mayor under the leadership of Zillur Rahman, the current council has completed development works worth about Tk 70 crore in the last 3 years. The mayor said that the municipal work worth 100 crores will be completed by next January.

The city will be beautified as a potential tourist center within the election period. Roads, drains, walkways, housing for Harijans, alleviation of water crisis are already visible in the plan.

It is learnt from talking to people related to development including the engineering branch of Chandpur municipality, that the current mayor of the municipality has paid 7.5 million taka arrears of salary to the officers and employees for 6 months after being elected in 2020. Salary is currently updated. Reduced expenses by paying the outstanding electricity bill of Tk 5 crore. Road and drainage problems were the worst. Construction of roads, drains and footpaths has already been completed at a cost of 25 crores with own funds. More development work is underway.

After visiting the city, it was seen that the important Stadium Road, Mission Road, Kalbari Saphat Chatwar, Shaheed Muktijoddha Road, Comilla Road, Bangabandhu Road, Haji Mohsin Road, JM Sengupta Road have been completed. Development works of several roads including Baki Abdul Karim Patwari Road, New Truck Road are ongoing. At the same time, this is the first time that road widening is being done with walkways on both sides of the road. The mayor has been praised for his bravery in widening the road.

Kabir Hossain, a resident of Bangabandhu road in the city, said that the mayor is very bravely widening most of the narrow roads in the city. This initiative will play a very important role in reducing traffic congestion.

Mohammad Alam, a resident of the truck road area of the city, said that floods would occur in Rahmatpur residential area, Palpara, Nazir Para and truck road when it rained. Chandpur municipality will be a truly beautiful city if the works planned by the current mayor to reduce public suffering including drainage construction and road widening are implemented. Several works are already visible.

AHM Shamsuddoha, Executive Engineer of Chandpur Municipality said that the present mayor has completed the work in the undeveloped areas of the municipality and backward populated areas since taking charge on October 24, 2020 till 2023. A 5 km drain has been constructed at a cost of 7.5 crore rupees. Two 5-storey buildings have been constructed for the marginalized community (Harijan) at a cost of 12 crore rupees. 4 crore development work has been done to solve the water crisis. Roads have been constructed through various projects at a cost of 8 crore rupees.

He also said that the dark areas of the city are now illuminated at night with the help of the Ministry of Environment. 150 solar electric lights have been installed at a cost of Tk 2 crore. Roads and drains have been constructed in Echuli and Ghoramara shelters with World Bank funding. 5 crore has been spent on it.

To improve the quality of life of the citizens of the municipality, extensive work has been done in education, health and prevention of child marriage in the municipality. The Living Quality Improvement Project for Marginalized Populations (LIUPC) is being implemented by UNDP. The organization is working on prevention of child marriage and education support for girls, health protection of pregnant mothers.

Mayor of Chandpur Municipality. Zillur Rahman said, we have taken responsibility in the extremely critical situation of the country due to Corona. Then the global crisis. For many years, the problem of the municipality is salary arrears of employees, gratuity money arrears, electricity bills arrears, contractors' bills arrears. It has taken almost 3 years to solve these internal problems of the municipality and bring them to a position. Increased revenue by curbing municipal wastage. Our revenue was Rs. 25 crore earlier. Now it has increased to 42 crore rupees. The increase in revenue will certainly be appreciated by the citizens. We also consider it a success.

The mayor said, the work we are doing now is the implementation of the election manifesto. The work is being done to create our potential tourist area i.e. to build an aesthetic city. We will carry forward the history and tradition of this municipality. In the meantime, about 70 crores worth of development work has been done. I can confidently say that we will have development work worth 100 crore rupees by next January. Before this, there was no such development work in 10-15 years. We have done more work by identifying areas that are lagging behind and underdeveloped. Because the people of those areas were deprived of civic benefits. We cannot collect taxes without giving benefits. Hope the work of Nanandik Municipality will be completed within the term of our Parishad with everyone's cooperation.