Bangladesh Economic & Infrastructure Development - Updates & Discussions

[Homo Sapiens]

 

[Homo Sapiens]

 

[Homo Sapiens]

Agargaon to Motijeel MRT-6 performance test started from Wednesday.

 

[Bilal9]

BSMMU Super Specialised Hospital starts full-scale operations​

Super Specialized Hospital under the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), the first of its kind in the country, has started full-scale operations including indoor services and surgery.

Nine operations were performed and one baby was born after the hospital activities was in full swing on Wednesday. Around 20,000 patients have received services, and about 40,000 tests including MRI, CT scan, and BMD have been done since the hospital launched outdoor services on 27 December 2022, said sources at the hospital.

The hospital has made arrangements so that the patients do not have to go abroad for treatment. They would get the latest advanced treatment services for all kinds of complex diseases including ones related to liver, kidney, heart, cancer, infertility, and knee replacement in the country, said Prof Dr Md Sharfuddin Ahmed, vice-chancellor of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, at a ceremony organized yesterday on occasion of inaugurating the hospital's indoor services.

The hospital also has facilities for stem cell therapy, and gene therapy. Robotic surgery will also be introduced there soon. Besides, the Super Specialized Hospital has all types of ICU services including a world class neonatal intensive care unit, and a paediatric intensive care unit, he added.

"There has been some delay in starting the full operations of the hospital as necessary equipment did not arrive on time due to the Covid-19 pandemic. All the services at the hospital will be launched in phases. The process of recruiting the required manpower for this purpose is going on," said Health Minister Zahid Maleque at the programme.

The minister commented, "Bangladesh has successfully faced the Covid-19 pandemic. Around 36 crore doses of vaccine have been given for free. These issues of development and success in the health sector should be promoted.

"Positive news boosts enthusiasm and boosts the country's image. Therefore, everyone should come forward to promote positive things instead of promoting one or two negative incidents."

The minister strongly urged authorities concerned to strengthen the programme to prevent dengue.

The state-of-the-art specialized hospital has been built at a cost of Tk1,366 crore on 3.4 acres of land to the north of the BSMMU. Of the construction cost, South Korea provided Tk1,047 crore as a loan.

The hospital has 750 beds. There will also be 14 ultra-modern operation theatres, a 100-bed intensive care unit, a 100-bed emergency unit, six VVIP and 22 VIP cabins, and 25 deluxe cabins.

Earlier on 13 September 2018, the prime minister laid the foundation stone of the specialized hospital. On 27 December 2022, expert doctors of 14 departments, professors, associate professors and assistant professors started seeing patients in the super specialized hospital.

 

[Homo Sapiens]

 

[saif]

Is the metro-rail project making profit?

 

[Bilal9]

Is the metro-rail project making profit?

Well not yet - MRT-6 isn't operating on full passenger load and doesn't stop in all stations yet. It will by 2025 hopefully when MRT-6 goes all the way to Kamalapur Multi-Modal Transport hub.

 

[Homo Sapiens]

Well not yet - MRT-6 isn't operating on full passenger load and doesn't stop in all stations yet. It will by 2025 hopefully when MRT-6 goes all the way to Kamalapur Multi-Modal Transport hub.

For the last one month, it is stopping at all the 9 stations so far opened. Time duration also extended from 8.00AM to 8.00PM. Currently 70,000 passengers are using it everyday. Note here that, all the important stations are situated in Agargaon-Motijeel section which now started trial run. This MRT-6 route will need half a million passengers per day to become financially viable. Which it will achieve after 2nd phage get completed and passenger service commence at full capacity from 6.00AM to 12.00AM and headway at 4 minutes from current 10 minutes.

Is the metro-rail project making profit?

 

[Homo Sapiens]

 

[Bilal9]

For the last one month, it is stopping at all the 9 stations so far opened. Time duration also extended from 8.00AM to 8.00PM. Currently 70,000 passengers are using it everyday. Note here that, all the important stations are situated in Agargaon-Motijeel section which now started trial run. This MRT-6 route will need half a million passengers per day to become financially viable. Which it will achieve after 2nd phage get completed and passenger service commence at full capacity from 6.00AM to 12.00AM and headway at 4 minutes from current 10 minutes.

Good points, I thought hours of operations were already extended from 6 AM to 11 PM.

When I mentioned "all stations" - I was talking more about including stopping at Phase 2 stations (Agargaon to Motijheel). The 9 stations you talk about are in Phase 1. Phase 1+2 will happen by October or at least EOY 2023. MRT-6 will be extended to Kamalapur Multi-Modal Transport Hub by 2025. That is what I know but I am sure someone may correct me.

 

[Bilal9]

Local IT companies expand their global footprint. Targeting $20 Billion of IT services exports by 2031. Comments welcome.

 

[Homo Sapiens]

 

[Homo Sapiens]

 

[saif]

Local IT companies expand their global footprint. Targeting $20 Billion of IT services exports by 2031. Comments welcome.

Do we have adequate IT infrastructure and skilled manpower to earn $20 billion within 2031? Or is it a BAL propaganda?

 

[Bilal9]

Do we have adequate IT infrastructure and skilled manpower to earn $20 billion within 2031? Or is it a BAL propaganda?

There is no difference in talent/skills available locally (or available IT infrastructure like local datacenters) between Bangladesh and other subcontinental countries. $20 Billion or more by 2030 is not an unrealistic goal at all.

In fact - as some Bangladeshi brothers have pointed out - Bangladeshis are no slouches when it comes to consumption/ownership of things like laptops or IT programming and software development talent.

What is missing is govt. support of the sector to attract foreign players by mobilizing private sector Back-office marketing overseas, which the neighbor country did twenty years ago.

There are more than a dozen large IT parks implemented all over Bangladesh, one is near Dhaka in Savar, where the National Data Center is.

It could easily be a game-changer for the economy, if govt. gave enough tariff support for IT Back-office services and free-lancing services, which it definitely is not.