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The proposed articulated bus service in the capital may be delayed as the Dhaka City Corporation has yet to make any headway with the demarcation of the dedicated lane and resolve many other issues.
   ‘The DCC has conducted a study and found it very difficult to manage space on the existing city streets for articulated bus service,’ a senior official of the DCC told a meeting held in the communication ministry on Thursday.
   Secretary of the communications ministry ASM Ali Kabir was in the chair while senior officials of the ministry, BRTC, DCC, Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Home Ministry and Dhaka Transport Coordination Board were present.
   No decision was taken yet for mobilising the private operators for such kind of specialised service which, according to the officials, is not possible to initiate and run with the buses of the state-owned BRTC.
   Around 5,500 buses, including 4,000 minibuses, mostly private, are now plying the city streets along with thousands of miniature public transports including rickshaw, auto-rickshaw and private cars making the traffic system of the city in a horrifying condition.
   Bangladesh Road Transport Authority proposed the government in August 2008 to introduce the articulated bus service to develop an easy and comfortable communication system for city people.
   It proposed private-public partnership and joint venture with any foreign companies in this sector and providing necessary credit facilitates to the entrepreneurs to import suitable buses.
   BRTA proposed commissioning of the service with large- bodied buses from BTRC and private operators and later add imported buses in the fleet.
   Under the system, a lane on the left side of the city road would be marked only for plying a fleet of articulated buses which would have more capacity in terms of carrying passengers and in speed.
   Ali Kabir said small sized transports including rickshaws should be phased out from city roads gradually after introduction of the articulated bus service and other alternative transport facilities in the city as early as possible.
   He urged all concerned not to discuss only on obstacles, rather put hand together for bringing the communication of the city in a systematic order so that the city people can move easily and feel comfort.
   The communications ministry in a meeting on January 26, 2009 constituted a seven-member committee comprising officials of the BRTC, Ministry of Commerce, National Board of Revenue, Finance Division, Home Ministry and Dhaka Transport Coordination Board to submit report in this regard.
   The committee headed by BRTA chairman in a meeting on February 1 decided to introduce the bus service on the Gabtali-Shahbagh-Gulistan route and engaged the Dhaka City Corporation to demarcate the dedicated lane for articulated bus by April 30.

The Rajshahi City Corporation on Wednesday night launched a night-time garbage removal programme aiming to keep the city clean and protect the environment.
   The Rajshahi mayor, AHM Khairuzzaman Liton, inaugurated the programme at ward 21.
   Earlier, the authorities concerned held meetings with RCC officials, politicians, cultural activists and journalists aiming to design a plan for implementing the programme successfully.
   The mayor, however, sought cooperation of city dwellers in executing the programme properly. He also stressed the need for creating awareness among the city people about the new programme.
   The RCC authorities brought out a colourful rally in the city on Wednesday that paraded different streets.
   RCC sources said cleaners started collecting household waste from 8:00pm and removed it at night. Garbage kept on city roads was causing public nuisance as well as traffic congestion, they added.
   ‘The programme will help to remove bad smell and reduce traffic jam,’ said Sheikh Mamun Dollar, an official of conservancy department. RCC’s garbage trucks were dumping the waste into the dumping ground, he said.
   City dwellers also welcomed the city corporation for launching the night-time garbage removal programme.

Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha has assigned two foreign experts to review the recently drafted detailed area plan for the Dhaka city and Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan.
   Japan International Cooperation Agency, which provides technical cooperation and other forms of aid for socioeconomic development in the developing countries, has sent the two experts, Rajuk officials said.
   The experts – Sakai Yuko, planner and GIS expert, and Hotta Hiroshi, technical adviser – have already joined the Rajuk office. They will work for the next six months.
   ‘We have come here on an assignment by JICA and will review the DAP and DMDP,’ Sakai Yuko told New Age.
   The deadline for finalising the much-awaited DAP for the capital city has been extended for the fourth time by another six months.
   DMDP was initiated in 1992, completed in 1995 and officially gazetted in 1997. But Rajuk took years to initiate preparation for detailed area plan and finally started work in 2004.
   Despite the delay, Rajuk extended the deadline for completion of the plan several times. The latest extension of timeline expired in June this year. Now the DAP is set to be finalised by December 31.
   Rajuk in 2004 appointed four private consultants for the DAP project, the third phase of Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan, at a cost of Tk 22.47 crore to prepare a survey report on area of 1,528 square kilometres.
   Later, the project cost stood at Tk 24.94 crore. The Rajuk officials, however, apprehended that with the further extension of the deadline for finalising the DAP, the cost of the project might increase further.
   Rajuk officials said the two experts would also work on selection of the proposed four satellite towns outside the capital.
   The government had decided to build four satellite cities where one lakh flats would be built on khas land to reduce extra pressure on the overpopulated capital.

Participants in a seminar on Thursday stressed the need for increasing clinical trials in health services with a view to detecting diseases and giving proper treatment accordingly.
   Clinical trail is gaining ground across the globe for its scientific benefits and business profit, but Bangladesh is yet to step forward in this potential area, they told the seminar at the Centre of Excellence of Dhaka University.
   The ministry of science and information and communication technology sponsored the seminar styled ‘modulation of insulin secretion and insulin sensitivity in Bangladeshi type-2 diabetic by an insulin sensitizer pioglitazone and its pharmacokietics study.’
   The state minister for science and ICT, Yeafes Osman, spoke at the seminar as chief guest while Dhaka University vice-chancellor Professor AAMS Arefin Siddique and Bangladesh Diabetic Samity president Professor AK Azad Khan were present as special guest and guest of honour respectively.
   Masuma Parvin, a PhD student and researcher, read out the keynote paper, which she made following a research carried out on 80 diabetic patients. Researchers, scientists and medicine experts participated in the seminar chaired by DU former vice-chancellor Professor AK Azad Chowdhury.
   Yeafes Osman said the present government is pledged-bound to give more importance to research and scientific areas as it is trying to build Digital Bangladesh.
   Urging the researchers to carry out more meaningful and inventive research in the healthcare services, the state minister said, ‘The government would increase necessary allocation in carrying out latest research.’
   The DU vice-chancellor said about 60 lakh people of the country are suffering from diabetes, one of the major health problems across the world. This huge number of patients needs special attention, he added.
   Professor AK Azad Khan said Bangladesh ranked 10th among the diabetes-affected countries. Within 2020 this position may reach to 7th, he added.
   Masuma Parvin in her keynote speech said diabetes is responsible for the development of macro and micro vascular complications in individuals.
   The introduction of new oral agents within the past three years expanded the range of possible combination regimens available for treating type-2 diabetes.
   But sufficient research on these drugs need considering the genetics and social background of the racial and ethnic group, etiopthogenesis of disease, rational and cost-effective approach, socio-economic status of patients, she said.

The Khulna City Corporation launches a month-long demolition drive today against illegal structures built on 22 canals in and around the city.
   Khulna mayor Talukder Abdul Khaleque will inaugurate the drive through which illegal structures on both banks of the River Mayur would be demolished from this morning.
   The illegal structures built on 22 canals would be demolished simultaneously, the mayor said, adding that the city dwellers would no more be compelled to live in distress and sorrows.
   The chairman of Khulna Nagorik Forum Sheikh Abdul Quiyum told the news agency that there was no alternative but to demolish these illegal structures as they were causing severe water-logging in the city.
   KCC sources said an inquiry committee was formed in February to demolish the illegal structures on the city’s 22 canals. Later, the KCC authorities announced its demolition drive at a public function held in April.
   The sources also said although the authorities concerned had issued notices earlier to the owners, they have yet to remove their illegal structures built on the 22 canals in and around the city.

The Rajshahi Rakkha Sangram Parishad formed a human chain in the city on Thursday, demanding removal of Rajshahi Medical College Hospital director for the death of a patient who died allegedly without treatment at the hospital.
   The Parishad, a platform of cross-section of people, organised the human chain programme at Shaheb Bazar in the city with several hundred people participating in it.
   The human chain was followed by a rally, where the Parishad leaders blamed the hospital authorities for the death of a patient at Ward No 6 on June 29.
   They demanded immediate removal of the RMCH director, Colonel Abdul Latif, and action against the doctors responsible for the death of the patient.
   The speakers alleged that all the RMCH doctors on June 29 went to participate in a seminar and no treatment during their absence caused the death of the patient.
   Terming the incident inhuman, the speakers demanded that the authorities concerned should ensure proper healthcare service at the hospital.
   They also threatened to launch tougher movement if the authorities concerned do not take action against the physicians whose negligence caused the death of the patient.
   The incumbent RMCH director should be removed immediately as he has failed to run the hospital, they said.

The two-storey auditorium of Jahangirnagar University which can accommodate 1,200 audience at a time has remained unnamed even fifteen years after it was inaugurated by the then prime minister, Khaleda Zia, in 1994.
   Just after the inauguration, the progressive students’ organisations and cultural groups demanded that it should be named after martyred moviemaker Zaheer Rayhan to commemorate his contribution to the country. But the demand was not met.
   Later in 2003, in the second term of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government, the university unit Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, BNP’s associate students’ body, pushed the then university administration, led by vice-chancellor Professor Jashimuddin Ahmed, to name the auditorium after former president Ziaur Rahman.
   A tough movement waged by the Progressive Students’ Alliance and Jahangirnagar Sanskritk Jote strongly protested against the demand.
   At present, the auditorium has many names. All the left-leaning student organisations and cultural groups call it the proposed Zaheer Rayhan Auditorium until the university administration takes any decision while others call it as the university auditorium. Officially the authorities call it central auditorium though the university has no other auditorium.

Light to moderate rain or thunder showers accompanied by temporary gusty or squally wind is likely to occur at most places over all the six divisions with moderately heavy to heavy falls at places during the next 24 hours till 6:00pm today.
   Day temperature may remain nearly unchanged over the country, Met Office said.
   The sun sets in the capital today at 7:50pm and rises tomorrow at 6:16am.
   Country's highest temperature 32.5 degrees Celsius was recorded on Thursday at Rajshahi and lowest 24.0 degrees at Rangpur, Syedpur and Cox's Bazar.