Govt plans high-rise buildings in villages to protect arable land

The government has approved a pilot project to build high-rise residential buildings in rural areas in a bid to preserve arable land.

In the first stage, seven villages in each of the seven divisions will get one of these buildings. The cooperatives-based buildings will be called "Palli Janapad".

The Tk 4.24 billion project was approved at the meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on Tuesday with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

According to the working paper of the project, the pilot constructions will be done in Upazila growth centre areas. Project sites will be picked through a baseline survey.

The survey will prioritise on places where expatriates send remittance abd where there is available land for acquisition.

Priority will also be put on pkaces where locals will be able to afford to pay 30 percent construction cost in advance and where people have the right attitude to coexist in a single building.

The project aims to preserve arable land, ensure food security and improve livelihoods. It also aims to increase the use of organic fertilisers.

The Center for Irrigation and Water Management (CIWM) and Rural Development Academy (RDA) will jointly implement the project under the Rural Development and Cooperatives Division.

The project is expected to complete by June, 2017.

The ECNEC meeting approved two other projects. One was "Extended Cotton Cultivation (Phase-1)" project with a budget of Tk 1.05 billion, to be implemented by June 2017.

The other one was a revised project titled "Siddhirganj-Maniknagar 230 KV Transmission Line (1st revised)". It has a budget of Tk 3 billion.