To mitigate the housing crisis of its service holders, the government has taken an initiative to build 1,216 modern flats at Azimpur Govt Colony in the capital.

In line with this move, the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives has sent two project proposals to the Planning Commission for approval, an official familiar with the matter at the commission, confirmed to the Daily Sun.

The projects styled “Construction of Multi Storey Residential Flats for Government Officials (Zone-C)” involving Tk865.25 crore and “Construction of Multi Storey Residential Flats for Government Officials (Zone-D)” worth Tk 645.55 crore will be implemented by June 2026.

The estimated costs of these projects will be Tk1,510.8 crore, said the Planning Commission official.

A meeting of the Project Evaluation Committee (PEC) on the evaluation of these projects is scheduled to be held at the commission’s Physical Infrastructure Division on 14 February.

Dr Mohammad Emdad Ullah Mian, member of the Physical Infrastructure Division, will preside over the meeting.

If the PEC gives the go-ahead, the proposals will then be placed before the meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) for final approval.

Upon the ECNEC approval, the projects will be implemented by the Public Works Department (PWD), the Planning Commission official said.

As per the project proposal for Zone-C, the government will demolish the existing 32-year-old dilapidated buildings in the project area of Azimpur Govt Colony and will construct 11 new 20-storey residential buildings on 9.26 acres of land.

There will be 836 flats in these buildings. Of the 11 buildings, there will be 1,000 square feet of flats each in six buildings, while the other five will offer 800 square feet of flats.

The government will also construct service buildings, multipurpose buildings, children’s club houses, and mosques in the project area.

Meanwhile, as per the project proposal for Zone-D, the government will demolish the 32-year-old dilapidated buildings in the project area and will construct five 20-storey buildings on 3.62 acres of land, offering a total of 380 flats.

Each of these flats will be 1,250 square feet in size. A two-storey children’s club house will also be built there.

Apart from these, walkways, insider roads, parking, boundary walls, and other facilities will also be available in the project area.

As per the project proposals, there are only 13,052 flats against some 1,48,915 government service holders working in Dhaka city.

This means that around 8% of the government officials or employees working in the capital city can enjoy the government housing facility.

This is why, most government service holders are forced to live in private houses with high rents due to the non-availability of government residence facilities.

To solve the housing crisis of the government service holders, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also issued a directive to raise Dhaka’s housing facility from the existing 8% to 40%, the project proposals read.