The government is going to construct 480 modern flats for cleaners, under a project called "construction of residential buildings for sweepers of the Dhaka City Corporation", in the city. The Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) has started the construction work of the flats, though it wants to increase the project cost by 16.58 per cent from the earlier estimated cost of Tk. 84.49 crore, sources in the LGRD ministry said.

The LGRD ministry has prepared a proposal to increase the project cost by Tk. 14 crore, raising it to Tk. 98.51 crore, the sources added. The proposal would be placed before the next meeting of the cabinet committee on purchase, to be held soon.

Secretary of the LGRD ministry, Helauddin Ahmed, in the variation proposal, explained that the contractor, MEC Engineers and Construction Limited, is doing six types of additional work, which were not included in the agreement.

For soil test, there will be an increased cost of Tk. 1.30 crore, Tk. 96 lakh for roof screeding work, Tk. 76 lakh for sanitary and plumbing work, Tk. 1.25 core for electrical wiring, Tk. 7.09 crore for interior steel fencing and RCC work and Tk. 2.63 crore for VAT and tax on bills of the construction work, the proposal said. According to the proposal, the project would be completed by 2020.

Sources said the flats would be allocated to the cleaners – better known as "sweepers" - of the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC).

At present, the cleaners of the city corporation are staying in two colonies known as “sweeper colonies”— one at Kamalapur and the other at Dayaganj, in the city since 1990.

Sources said there were about 55 lakh sweepers in the country who were working under various local bodies, including city corporations.