Home ›› 17 Oct 2021 ›› Nation
In a bid to mitigate people’s hassles in getting government services, the Ministry of Housing and Public Works has established an integrated government office in the Shakuni Lake area in Madaripur.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the 10-storey building – which is built on an acre of land spending Tk 70 crore – on September 3 this year, said ministry sources.
The multi-storey integrated office is comprised of 40 government offices that used to be located in a scattered fashion in different rented houses in the district, creating distress for the people who needed to reach these offices for various government services.
In 2012, Shajahan Khan, the member of parliament from Madaripur-2 constituency and former minister of shipping (from 2009 to 2019), submitted a proposal for constructing the integrated office.
Upon his initiation, the prime minister directed the housing ministry to conduct a survey on August 26, 2012.
After their approval and a long period of survey and observation, the prime minister approved the construction of the building at the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council meeting in March 2016. The construction started in 2016 and ended in June 2021, confirmed the housing ministry sources.
The building is able to host 40 offices, containing 20,000 sqft of office space from the first to the fourth floor and 16,000 sqft of office space from the fifth to the 10th floor.
Over 55 vehicles can be parked in the basement and the parking space on the first floor of the building.
The building also has four elevators, a 500 KVM generator, a 1,200 KVM electrical sub-station, CCTV cameras, public address systems for parked vehicles, air conditioning systems, sewage treatment plant, fire hydrants, fire detection systems, rain water harvesting systems, 35KW on-grid solar panel, canteen, day care centre, bank, 3,000sqft multipurpose convention centre, etc.
Executive Engineer of the housing and public works ministry Md Kamrul Islam Khan told The Business Post this government office is a milestone for Madaripur.
“The government is constructing this type of integrated office in Gopalganj, Manikganj, and other districts as well,” he said.
Not only are the people of this district being facilitated through this initiative, but the government is also able to save money as it does not have to bear the costs of 40 different offices.
Parliamentarian Shajahan Khan told The Business Post the initiative had mitigated the hassles the residents used to face every day to get government services.
Deputy Commissioner of the district Dr Rahima Khatun told The Business Post the integrated government office had made its administrative services easily accessible to the people.
“It is a good initiative, and all the district towns should have an integrated office like this. It will save time, money, and efforts of both the government and the common people,” she added.
