Shahbagh Police Station will now be built facing north after being slightly relocated closer to Birdem Hospital and Dhaka Club in the capital.
The decision was made at a meeting of the advisory council, chaired by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, today (28 November) at his Tejgaon office.
Last June, the then Awami League government decided to move the police station from the Suhrawardy Udyan area to the Sakura Restaurant area, opposite the InterContinental Dhaka.
“Shahbagh Police Station will be built facing north, occupying as little space as possible and in a suitable location,” said Cabinet Secretary Sheikh Abdur Rashid while briefing journalists on the outcome of the meeting at the Secretariat later in the afternoon.
He added that the police station will be relocated slightly, remaining fairly close to its current location. The area now being used as a police station is unsanitary, with old, broken and seized vehicles being dumped there.
The construction of the Swadhinata Stambha (first revision of the third phase) is being implemented at Suhrawardy Udyan under the initiative of the liberation war affairs ministry.
Most of the work for this project is in the Shahbagh area, including the area where Shahbagh Police Station is located. For this reason, the ministry had applied to the previous government to have the police station relocated.
The cabinet secretary said the implementation of the Swadhinata Stambha project is in the final stage. This decision was made considering how to beautify the project and maintain its aesthetics.
The advisers will visit the area to decide where and how Shahbagh Police Station will be located. An attempt will also be made to rearrange the flower market as part of this project, he added.
When a journalist asked why a new decision was needed, given that the relocation of the police station to the Sakura Restaurant area had previously been decided, the cabinet secretary responded that the issue of relocating the police station near Sakura Restaurant was raised in the meeting.
However, that proposal did not seem very suitable to the advisory council. There is a famous international hotel in that area, and the owner of the place where the police station was supposed to be relocated is not willing to provide space, he added. ***
