Govt to make a mega plan for Tejgaon as a commercial hub

The government will draw up a mega plan before developing Tejgaon Industrial Area as a commercial as well as residential district.

The Cabinet at a regular meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made the decision on Monday when it approved the proposal to transform the industrial hub.

Cabinet Secretary Md Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters that a high-powered committee, led by the housing and public works minister, will evaluate the mega plan before presenting it to the prime minister for endorsement.

He said the area would be developed after the prime minister's approval.

Bhuiyan said it was the Ninth Parliament’s oversight committee on the housing and public works ministry that had recommended turning the plots along the main and arterial roads in the industrial zone into commercial plots as well.

A seven-strong committee was formed to evaluate the recommendation apart from the ones made by the local MP and Tejgaon industry owners.

The public works ministry wants Cabinet's approval to declare Tejgaon an industrial and a commercial area on 13 conditions based on recommendations by two committees.

The prime minister stressed that development of Tejgaon need to be done in a planned manner, Bhuiyan said.

The Tejgaon industrial area was set up on 500 acres of land in 1950. Although it has 430 plots, there are no heavy industries.

In 1998, the government declared the Tejgaon-Gulshan link road a 'commercial road'.