Cabinet secretary, principal secretary to get houses costing Tk 430 million

The government is constructing two buildings for the two officials in the public administration - the cabinet secretary and principal secretary to the prime minister. These two buildings will be constructed side by side at Esktaton Garden of the capital.

The construction costs of these buildings will reportedly be around Tk 430 million (Tk 43 crore). The money will be allocated from government funds.

According to the project plan, each building will be three-storey with an area of 18,000 square feet. The cost will be Tk 215 million (Tk 21.5 crore) for each building. There will be two swimming pools in each of the building and their estimated cost is Tk 51 million (Tk 5.1 crore).

On Sunday the project titled ‘Construction of residences for cabinet secretary and principal secretary to the prime minister' was sent to the planning commission from the ministry of public works. As the cost of this project is under TK 500 million (Tk 50 crore) the planning minister has the authority to approve it. 

The ministry of public works, to justify the project, said there is no fixed residence for the top two posts in the civil administration. The cabinet secretary now resides in the official residence at Minto Road in the capital. And the principal secretary lives in the official residence at Gulshan in the capital.

But these two residences are not fixed for these posts. Whoever is appointed to these positions, take government houses according to their choice. That is why this initiative has been taken up to construct a separate residence for the two posts.

The government has been advising people to adopt austerity in the face of global economic crisis. Directives about not approving new projects unless urgent have been issued. Foreign tours and purchase of transport for government officers have been reduced. Amid all this, this project has been sent for approval to the planning commission.

Abdullah Mohammad Zubair, executive engineer of the public works department, told Prothom Alo that discussions about the project have been going on for long before the economic crisis started. A lot of time went into finalising the design and location.

He said that there is no designated residence for the cabinet secretary and the principal secretary and that is why the initiative has been taken.

The place at the Eskaton Garden of the capital, where the buildings will be constructed, already has two six-storey buildings. There is also a two-storey garage and a residential building there as well. The public works department is saying, these buildings are very old. These will be demolished and the new buildings will be constructed.

Another official of the public works department told Prothom Alo on condition of anonymity that due to the ongoing economic crisis, the government has selected projects in three categories. In that case, the planning commission will decide whether the government residence project for the cabinet secretary and the principal secretary will get approval or not.

However, it is said that the top echelons of the government have given green signal to approve the project. Apart from that, the public works department has been urged to complete the work of the project within one and a half years.

The project plans to construct two swimming pools at the residences of the cabinet secretary and the chief secretary. The cost has been estimated at 5 crore 10 lakhs. Shaheed Ullah Khandkar, the outgoing secretary of the ministry of public works, had objected to the proposal of spending so much money to build a swimming pool. In an inter-ministerial meeting, he termed the cost of swimming pool as over-spending.

But executive engineer of public work department Abdullah Mohammed Zubair said otherwise. He said, many things are attributed with a swimming pool. There are costs regarding purifying water and pumps. There are many technical aspects. This is not a normal water body. That is why the cost is extra. But the cost may vary.

Documents indicate the estimated cost of the two three-storey buildings is TK 90 million each. Moreover, TK 22.5 million will be spent on interior designing of the buildings. The furniture will cost Tk 15 million.

A total of 14 LED televisions will be purchased and it will cost Tk 900,000. As many as 32 CCTV systems will be bought costing Tk 600,000. And Tk 17.5 million will be spent for fire extinguishing system. The cost of 1000 kg lift (European Standard) is estimated at Tk 15.5 million.

Moreover, Tk 1.8 million will be sent to conserve rain water. Outgoing secretary Shahid Ullah Khondokar also raised question about the cost of conserving water.

But an official of the public works department seeking anonymity said, the planning commission will reduce much of the expenditure. Then the cost will be reduced.