Dhaka, Dec. 1 -- Planning Adviser Dr Wahiduddin Mahmud on Monday called for a long-term, comprehensive master plan for the Bangladesh Secretariat and urged policymakers and the public to engage in a wider national conversation on whether the country's administrative hub, or capital, should eventually be shifted out of central Dhaka.

He made the remarks while speaking to reporters after the meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC), during which a major proposal to construct a new 21-storey office building at the Secretariat was withheld from approval.

Dr Mahmud said the proposed project, estimated at between Tk 600-700 crore, could not be endorsed at this stage because the entire Secretariat zone has gr...