Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today said that Dhaka city will witness a “massive difference by 2030” as the government will implement various projects for improving rail connectivity to ease traffic congestion in the capital. “Insha Allah, Dhaka city will have a different scenario by 2030, through rail communication,” she said while inaugurating train operations from Rooppur, Shashidal and Joydebpur railway stations on the newly installed 69.20 km track under three projects of Bangladesh Railway, joining virtually from her official residence Ganabhaban. The prime minister said that the government has already introduced Metro Rail for Dhaka city dwellers which will be extended from Uttara to Kamalapur in near future. She said that not only elevated, the government is also going to introduce underground train, and for that it has started construction work under the MRT-I project. “It (rail) will save commute time and costs. Traffic of Dhaka city will ease,” she said. Railways Minister Md. Nurul Islam Sujan, Deputy High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh Dr Binoy George, and Railways Secretary Dr. Md. Humayun Kabir also spoke at the programme. A documentary on the three projects of Bangladesh Railway was screened at the event. The PM said that her government has constructed the Padma Multipurpose Bridge with own financing and ensured rail communication facilities on the bridge. She said that installation work of rail track on the Padma Multipurpose Bridge is going on in full swing. She added that extension of the rail track to Rupdia and Singia of Jashore is progressing. “Besides, two fast-track projects are being implemented to establish rail connectivity with the tourist destination Cox's Bazar, thanks to the initiative of the Awami League government,” she said. Sheikh Hasina said the government is also constructing a separate rail bridge on the Jamuna river, which is progressing fast.  “Those who once opposed rail connectivity through the Bangabandhu Bridge are now proposing to construct a separate rail bridge on Jamuna river. Construction work of the Bangabandhu Rail Bridge is going on,” she said.  The PM said that construction of Akhaura-Laksam dual-gauge double-line, Dhaka-Tongi 3rd and 4th dual-gauge line and Tongi-Joydebpur dual-gauge double-line are under construction. In addition, she said, the government is constructing Dhaka-Narayanganj dual-gauge line, Bhanga-Barishal-Paira Port railway line, Joydebpur-Ishwardi dual-gauge double-line, Khulna-Darshana dual-gauge double-line, Sirajganj-Bogura dual-gauge railway line. "Moreover, work on Joydebpur-Mymensingh-Jamalpur dual-gauge double-line, Rooppur nuclear power plant rail-link, Akhaura-Agartala rail line, Dhirashram ICD project is in progress," she said. The prime minister said that for the purpose of transporting goods of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, the government took up the project titled “Rehabilitation and Construction of Railway Line with Signaling for Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant” with own funding. Under the project, a total of 26.52 km railway track including loop-line, Rooppur Railway Station building, 7 culverts, 13 level crossing gates and signaling-telecom work have been completed.   Sheikh Hasina said they undertook the project to upgrade the Dhaka-Chittagong corridor to a double-line. Earlier, out of 321 km of this corridor, 249 km double-line construction has been completed, she said. The project titled “Construction of Dual Gauge Double Rail Line from Akhaura to Laksam and Conversion of Existing Rail Line to Dual Gauge” was taken up with Asian Development Bank and European Investment Bank and self-financing for construction of remaining 72 km double-line. Saying that Laksam-Cumilla train service started earlier, Sheikh Hasina said that now railway double line construction from Shashidal to Rajapur and from Kasba to Mandbagh has been completed which was inaugurated today.   “The double line on the remaining 33 km route will be completed in June this year, Insha Allah,” she said. The prime minister also highlighted briefly the development works for railway in the last 14 years.  She said that they have constructed 650 km of new railway lines, converted 280 km of meter gauge to dual gauge and rehabilitated/reconstructed 1,297 km of lines.   Besides, 126 new station buildings and 223 station buildings have been rehabilitated/reconstructed, she said.   In addition, 732 new railway bridges were constructed while 774 railway bridges were rehabilitated or reconstructed alongside rehabilitation of 50 broad gauge and 50 meter gauge passenger coaches. Sheikh Hasina said they have acquired 106 locomotives, 20 sets of DEMUs, 535 passenger carriages and 516 freight wagons. The government has developed and modernized signaling system at 130 stations, she said, adding that a total of 142 new trains including Mitali Express have been launched on 44 new and extended routes. 

Health Minister Zahid Malik said the test run of administering Covid-19 vaccines among children aged 5-12 years has started in the country. Children will be vaccinated in the city corporation areas from August 25 under the mass vaccination campaign, he said. The vaccination campaign will be operated at all schools across the country in phases. However, none can take a vaccine without registration. Zahid Malik revealed the information while visiting Manikganj General Hospital on Saturday. The minister said the rate of child mortality in the country was 30-32 per 1000 live births.  Read: Bangladesh receives more doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine from US The rate of child mortality will be brought under control to achieve the targets of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The rate of child mortality in the country will decrease to 10-12 per 1000 live births within 2030, he asserted. Higher officials of the ministry and officials of the Manikganj deputy commissioner’s office were present. Later, a discussion was held at the hospital auditorium.  

Electric car sales have boomed in recent years, rising 65 percent in 2018 from the previous year to 5.1 million vehicles, and are expected to reach 23 million in 2030, according to the International Energy Agency.   The demand for raw materials used to manufacture rechargeable batteries will grow rapidly as the importance of oil as a source of energy recedes, as highlighted recently by the collapse of prices due to oversupply and weak demand resulting from COVID-19, according to a new UNCTAD report.   The report, Commodities at a glance: Special issue on strategic battery raw materials, documents the growing importance of electric mobility and the main materials used to make rechargeable car batteries.   Ongoing efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions are expected to spur further investment in green energy production, which has been steady over the years, standing at around $600 billion per year on average.   “Alternative sources of energy such as electric batteries will become even more important as investors grow more wary of the future of the oil industry,” UNCTAD's director of international trade, Pamela Coke-Hamilton, said while launching the report on Wednesday.    Rechargeable batteries will play a significant role in the global transition to a low-carbon energy system and help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions if the raw materials used in their manufacture are sourced and produced in a sustainable manner, the report says.   The worldwide market for cathode for lithium ion battery, the most common rechargeable car battery, was estimated at $7 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach $58.8 billion by 2024, according to the report.   “The rise in demand for the strategic raw materials used to manufacture electric car batteries will open more trade opportunities for the countries that supply these materials. It’s important for these countries to develop their capacity to move up the value chain,” Coke-Hamilton said.   Raw materials in a few countries, value addition limited   Reserves of the raw materials for car batteries are highly concentrated in a few countries.    Nearly 50% of world cobalt reserves are in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), 58% of lithium reserves are in Chile, 80% of natural graphite reserves are in China, Brazil and Turkey, while 75% of manganese reserves are in Australia, Brazil, South Africa and Ukraine.   The highly concentrated production, susceptible to disruption by political instability and adverse environmental impacts, raises concerns about the security of the supply of the raw materials to battery manufacturers.   The report warns that supply disruptions may lead to tighter markets, higher prices and increased costs of car batteries, affecting the global transition to low-carbon electric mobility.   According to the report, investing more in green technologies that depend less on critical battery raw materials could help reduce consumers’ vulnerability to supply shortfalls in the current mix of materials such as lithium and cobalt, but this would cut the revenues of the countries producing them.   The report indicates that the bulk of value added to raw materials used in making rechargeable batteries is generated outside the countries that produce the materials.   For instance, value added to cobalt ores by the DRC is limited to intermediate products or concentrates. Further processing and refining are mostly done in refineries in Belgium, China, Finland, Norway and Zambia to obtain the end products used in rechargeable batteries as well as for other applications.   The DRC, which accounts for over two-thirds of global cobalt production, has not maximized the economic benefits of the mineral due to limited infrastructure, technology, logistical capacity, financing and lack of appropriate policies to encourage local value addition.   The manufacture of positive electrodes for car batteries is dominated by countries in Asia. In 2015, China accounted for approximately 39% of the global market, Japan 19% and Republic of Korea 7%.   Social and environmental impacts stain production   The report shines a light on the social and environmental impacts of the extraction of raw materials for car batteries and underlines the urgent need to address them.   For instance, about 20% of cobalt supplied from the DRC comes from artisanal mines where child labour and human rights abuses have been reported. Up to 40,000 children work in extremely dangerous conditions in the mines for meagre income, according to UNICEF.   And in Chile, lithium mining uses nearly 65% of the water in the country’s Salar de Atamaca region, one of the driest desert areas in the world, to pump out brines from drilled wells.   This has caused groundwater depletion and pollution, forcing local quinoa farmers and llama herders to migrate and abandon ancestral settlements. It has also contributed to environment degradation, landscape damage and soil contamination.   The adverse environmental impacts could be reduced by increasing investment in technologies used to recycle spent rechargeable batteries, according to the report.