Sheikh Hasina Inaugurates World’s Biggest Climate Refugee Rehab Scheme
By Tahsin Taha
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has inaugurated 20 buildings constructed in the first phase of the Khurushkul Asylum Project, the world’s largest shelter for climate refugees in Cox’s Bazar. The Prime Minister inaugurated the development project through a video conference from Ganobhaban on Thursday (July 23, 2020).
600 Six hundred families got flats in the buildings inaugurated in the first phase. The apartments were handed over by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at a nominal price of Taka one thousand only.
A total of 139 buildings of the project, including 20 buildings of five-storied, will be constructed in the first phase at the cost of Taka 1800 crore with the government’s funds. Each five-storied building has 32 flats of 458 square feet.
A total of about four and a half thousand families will move to the neat and tidy buildings if all the buildings are constructed.
Every flat will have the facilities of water, electricity, and gas cylinder. Each building will have a solar power panel. The project will have 14 playgrounds, gardens, mosques, temples, primary and secondary schools, police and fire stations, three ponds, two jetties on the river, and two electricity substations.
All the recently constructed structures are equipped with a ramp system for people with disabilities, solar panels, safe drinking water, electricity, sanitation, gas cylinder and burner, 20 km of internal roads, 36 km of the drainage system, waste treatment, and drainage management, embankment protection dams, small bridges, ponds and canals in the entire project area.
The authorities have claimed that the unique shelter project, built on 253 acres of land on the bank of the Bakkhali River in Khurushkul, is the largest shelter for climate refugees in the world.
The names of the buildings constructed in the first phase are Dolanchapa, Keora, Rajnigandha, Gandharaj, Hasnahena, Kamini, Gulmohar, Golap, Sonali, Nilambri, Oyster, Coral, Mukta, Prabal, Sopan, Mankhali, Shankhali, Bankkhali, Inani, and Sampan.
