PM opens world's biggest housing project for climate victims

The country’s biggest ever housing project ‘Khurushkul Bishesh Asrayan Prakalpa-2’ for the climate-hit families has been inaugurated at Khurushkul in Cox’s Bazar on Thursday.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the mega shelter for climate victims through videoconferencing from her official residence Ganabhaban in the capital.

In the first phase, 20 special structures for some 640 families have been constructed.

Each family will get a 456-square feet flat for only Tk 1001.

All the buildings will be equipped with ramp system for people with disabilities, solar panels, safe drinking water, electricity, sanitation, waste management, drainage, cylinder gas and burner.

Bangladesh Army has been assigned to construct a total of 139 five-storey buildings on 253.59 acres of land at a cost of Tk 1800.39 crore.

The project has four specific zones, featuring an exquisite tower to be named after Sheikh Hasina. It will also have places of worships, tourist site,  playgrounds and ponds.

Under the project, some 4,409 families hit by climate change will be rehabilitated.

The beneficiaries of the project are mostly the victims of the deadly 1991 cyclone which forced them to take refuge in the airport area of Cox’s Bazar town.

Under the supervision of the Prime Minister’s Office, the 10th infantry division, Cox’s Bazar district and upazila administration jointly constructed the 20 buildings in the first phase of the project undertaken in 2014-15 fiscal year at the the directive of Prime Minister.

The government, however, has kept the development of the tourism site and construction of a dry fish processing building out of the existing budget.