Gazipur city set to get dev authority, Bill okayed

The cabinet on Monday approved the draft of the Gazipur Unnayan Kartripakkha Bill 2019 with a view to making the fast-growing Gazipur city as a planned, livable and environment-friendly urban area.

The approval came from the weekly cabinet meeting held with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair at her office.

Outgoing Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam briefed reporters at the Secretariat after the meeting.

He said Gazipur Unnayan Kartripakkha (Gazipur Development Authority-GDA) will be like Chottagram Development Authority (CDA), Khulna Development Authority (KDA) and Rajshahi Development Authority (RDA).

The main jobs of the GDA will be to formulate the mega plan for the city development and approve structural designs, the cabinet secretary said.

There will be a 22-member board headed by a chairman to run the GDA, he said.

The GDA’s jurisdiction will be the Gazipur City Corporation as well as its adjoining areas to be fixed by government gazettes from time to time, said Shafiul Alam.

Besides, the Cabinet endorsed the draft of an agreement to be signed between Bangladesh and South Africa regarding the waiver of visa requirements for diplomatic and official passport holders.

The Cabinet extended thanks to Mohammad Shafiul Alam for his good services as the cabinet secretary as he is going to join as alternative executive director of the World Bank for the next three years with the status of cabinet secretary.

His contractual job as the cabinet secretary will be cancelled from Tuesday (Oct 29).
 
The Cabinet also thanked Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Division Secretary Mohammad Shahidul Haque for his good performance as a senior secretary since he goes on retirement.