India yesterday invited a Bangladeshi delegation to see the construction of the planned Tipaimukh Dam on the River Barak, which environmentalists fear will eventually dry up the Meghna River in the greater Sylhet region.

The invitation came at a meeting between Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni and visiting Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon.

The government is going to build a new rail track from Laksam to Chinki Astana on Dhaka-Chittagong route, said a PID handout.

The new rail track, a part of the second rail track on Dhaka-Chittagong route, would be 61 kilometres long.

Financed by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the project is scheduled to be finished within four years.

Over 8 lakh city dwellers suffer from asthmatic problem due to various environmental pollutions, particularly dust and toxic metals in the air, experts said at a roundtable here yesterday.

They said the main causes of asthma are air pollution, unventilated living conditions, both at home and workplaces, unplanned industrialization, dense population and living in slums.

Excessive use of underground water of the capital through deep tube wells, and filling up of low-lying land, canals and water bodies are causing the underground water level to drop alarmingly.

Experts say that this could put the city dwellers in severe water crisis in future and also cause land to subside.

Excessive use of underground water of the capital through deep tube wells, and filling up of low-lying land, canals and water bodies are causing the underground water level to drop alarmingly.

Experts say that this could put the city dwellers in severe water crisis in future and also cause land to subside.

Air pollution in capital city Dhaka raised higher than Mexico and Mumbai killing thousands of people prematurely each year, health experts say.

According to the Department of Environment (DoE) the density of airborne particulate matter (PM) reaches 463 micrograms per cubic metre (mcm) in the city during December-March period - the highest level in the world.

Dhaka has completed the groundwork for negotiating nuclear power deals with Russia, South Korea, China and France aimed at the construction of two medium-sized 600MW nuclear power plants by 2017, officials said.
Dhaka holds talks with a Russian delegation today to know of Moscow

The city of Dhaka experiences acute shortage of water all the year round. The city dwellers have taken it as part of their life. So they don't raise a hue and cry. But in summer and the advent of summer seasons it gets terribly acute and the people come to the street with empty pots and pitchers. This is a common scene every year which draws attention of many organizations and people.

With the advent of summer, diarrhoea has broken out in an epidemic form in the capital city of Dhaka mainly due to scarcity of pure drinking water.

More than one thousand diarrhoea-affected people were admitted to the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh (ICDDRB) during last two days, according to sources in ICDDRB.

Seven people died of diarrhoea in the Dhaka city and Jossore in the past seven days till 5:00pm on Friday as waterborne diseases spread in many parts of the country because of contaminated water and hot and humid weather, according to the health control room.