My Publications

Shooting through the roof Saad Hammadi and Faizul Khan Tanim discover how the steel industry has artificially hiked the price of rods destabilising the real estate and housing industry and its consumers as a result photo by Al-Emrun Garjon A year ago, an apartment in Mirpur or Uttara would cost Tk 2,500 per squarefeet at a minimum price, today it is Tk. 3,500. An abrupt rise in prices of construction materials has left many potential buyers of flats, deprived. As Mukarram Husain Khan, former president of Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (Rehab) points out, ‘our buyers have become product shy because of their budget failure to afford their desired apartments.’ A New Age investigation this week reveals that the unjustifiable price hike of mild steel rods as one of the major reasons behind the rising price of apartments across the country. A number of construction firms have halted their work in progress in anticipation of a decline in prices of rods. However, this ha...

A cure for emotion sickness Faizul Khan Tanim listens to two of the latest albums by Sumon & Anila and Topu, both produced by Fuad, and realizes how these songs are harnessing the power of our everyday emotional lives A soul looking for romance, love and affection is a lot like someone craving for a high. We all want the cure which will relieve our emotion sickness; we want that euphoria where there is no emptiness and no loneliness, and we want to feel inundated with love. Of course, these feelings are only temporary. Soon, the nagging starts and quite often the comical phrase of ‘wearing the three rings – the engagement ring, the wedding ring and the suffering’ comes to life and the relationship drives the innate longing for happiness to seek a new substance all over again. These feelings are beautifully rendered in the two albums in question. It feels like the musicians, with the production of Fuad, narrate the turmoil in our lives. In the chorus of Shobar Jonno Tumi, a track f...

The rod price fiasco in Bangladesh The prices of mild steel (MS) iron rods used for construction have gone up drastically over a period of one year and a fresh price hike within the last two months has created a huge turmoil within the construction sector. As the situation for the realtors changed drastically after the 1/11 change-over, this latest price chaos has left many construction companies baffled, real estate and housing association of Bangladesh (REHAB) sources said. The country's construction sector alleges that the causes of this abnormal price hike of mild steel (MS) rod, mainly the 60-grade rod, which is mainly used for the construction of buildings, has hit hard on the local market and the biggest sufferer is the real estate sector. However, sources from the Bangladesh re-rolling mills association say that this is due to increase in import costs of raw materials, scrap iron, and a price hike in the international market. According to market sources of English Road, per...