The government has taken initiatives to protect the lives and properties from flash floods and other natural calamities in the country, especially in the coastal areas, officials said.
The disaster management and relief ministry and the water resources ministry have taken up two projects to this end.
The water resources ministry has come up with a project for the construction of polders in the coastal belt to check river erosion caused by tidal surge and floods.
It will build 139 polders at a cost of Tk 32.80 billion with the support from the World Bank, a high official of the ministry told the FE on Wednesday.
The Bangladesh Water Development Board, which is under the ministry of water resources, will implement the project, he added.
Under another project, the disaster management and relief ministry will procure 60 multi-purpose rescue boats, which will be used to rescue people during flash floods, tidal surge and other natural disasters.
The Bangladesh Navy (BN) will build and supply the boats to the ministry under an agreement signed between them recently.
Additional secretary of the ministry Ranjit Kumar Sen said, "We have signed an agreement with the Bangladesh Navy (BN) on the supply of multi-purpose boats which will be used to rescue people and transport their belongings during floods and other natural disasters."
The BN engineering dockyard in Narayanganj will build and supply a total of 60 boats within the next three years under the project involving Tk 270 million, he said.
The cost of building each boat is estimated at Tk 4.5 million.
The ministry will receive 20 multi-purpose rescue boats this year, said the official.
The remaining 40 boats will be supplied within the next two years, he added.
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