National Committee to Protect Shipping, Roads and Railway
The National Committee to Protect Shipping, Roads and Railway on Friday demanded transparency and accountability in the Global Marine Distressed and Safety System (GMDSS) project, jointly financed by the governments of Bangladesh and South Korea, for safety in waterway transportation.The committee Advisor Manjurul Ahsan Khan and General Secretary Ashish Kumar Dey in a joint statement, also urged the government to extend the project, run by the Department of Shipping by three years, appointing a new project director and a high powered audit committee to probe corruption in the project s. The leaders criticized purchasing of luxury cars, renting a huge office and manpower recruitment before getting the overseas money.The organisation that had been vocal for long to establish a safe mass transportation system in the country also demanded to publish the sector based expenditure from the government exchequer for two years before beginning the main works of the project.The department of shipping took the Tk 370 crore 89 lakh and four thousand project to strengthen safety of the water transportation in coastal region, it was informed in the statement. Of the project expenditure, the South Korea will provide 282 crore 74 lakh and 64 thousand and the Bangladesh government will provide the remaining Tk 88 crore, 14 lakh and 40 thousand. As per the project design, the statement said, light houses will be installed at many places including Cox’s Bazar for uninterrupted and smooth transportation of ships and fishing trawlers in the sea and in the coastal belt and to construct a multi-storied building at its Agargaon office in the capital.
Dhaka University
A seven-member delegation of renowned academicians and scientists from Russia, Netherlands and Japan called on Dhaka University (DU) Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr AAMS Arefin Siddique yesterday at the latter’s office of the university. Members of the delegation were Prof Anton Nijholt, University of Twente of Netherlands, Dr Taiga Yamaya, National Institute of Radiological Sciences of Japan, Dr Igor Kalyaev, Professor of Russian Academy of Science, Dr Iakov S Korovin, Director of Scientific Research Institute of Southern Federal University, Russia and Dr Eduard, Dr Anatoly Kalyaev and Dr Maksum Khyawe of the same university. Associate Professor of the Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering of DU Md Atiqur Rahman Ahad and Chair of IEEE students Branch of DU Md Ahsan Habib were present on this occasion. During the meeting they discussed the possibilities of undertaking joint collaborative academic and research programs on science and technology among the University of Dhaka and different higher educational institutions in Russia as well as Netherlands and Japan. Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor Prof. Dr. AAMS Arefin Siddique recalled with gratitude the all out support and cooperation of international community specially the then Soviet Union during our Liberation War in 1971. It may be mentioned that the academicians and scientists from Russia, Netherlands and Japan are now on a visit to Bangladesh to attend two-day long international conference on “Informatics, Electronics & Vision (ICIEV)” organized by the Centre for Natural Science & Engineering Research (CNSER) at Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban of the university.
