Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday inaugurated a state-of-the-art multi-storey food warehouse with a capacity to store 25,000 tonnes of food grains in Santahar of Bogra's Adamdighi.

The Department of Food has constructed the air-conditioned warehouse at a cost of over Tk 232 crore with financial and technical support from Japan. It will preserve food grains with the use of solar power throughout the year.

Officials familiar with construction of the silo said the warehouse would keep food grains intact in controlled temperature for a long time.

They said the related structures like railway track and internal roads were built, and necessary power systems were also installed to make the plant operational.

The PM said the present government kept on its efforts for enhancing food stocks.

"It is expected that the country would be able to build 100 percent food storage capacity by 2021," she said and expressed her hope that the newly built Santahar warehouse would help massively in this regard.

The PM also visited different sections of the warehouse and planted a mango sapling on the silo premises.

She went there to open various development projects and lay the foundation stones of several others.

Hasina also urged the people to re-elect her party in the next general election, giving it another chance to serve people and maintain the current massive development activities.

"If you want to see massive development activities, then there should be the continuation of the government. If the BNP-Jamaat alliance, which had grabbed power illegally, unleashed terrorism, militancy, comes to power, then the country's development will get stalled," she said.

Hasina, also the president of the ruling AL, was addressing a rally organised by its local unit at Santahar stadium.

The AL chief said whenever her party assumed office, people got something, but when the BNP-Jamaat took office, the "sheaf of paddy" turned blight, as there was food deficit in the country.

Mentioning that her government believes in balanced development, she said Bogra has witnessed massive development like other parts of the country in the last eight years.

She said a special economic zone would be set up in Bogra while law is being enacted to establish a university there.

Land Minister Shamsur Rahman Sherif, Food Minister Qamrul Islam, AL joint general secretaries Jahangir Kabir Nanak and Abdur Rahman, AL Organising Secretary Abu Sayed Al Mammud Swapon, MP, Bogra district AL President Momtaz Uddin, Whip of parliament Shahiduzzanan Sarker, Abdul Mannan, MP, Habibur Rahman, MP, Bogra district AL General Secretary Mujibur Rahman Mojnu, among others, spoke at the rally chaired by Adamdighi AL upazila unit president Ansar Ali Mridha.

Earlier, the PM inaugurated and laid the foundation stones of 17 projects, worth Tk 316.87 crore, from the rally venue through unveiling the plaques digitally.

From the stadium, Hasina inaugurated the extended part of Nandigram Upazila Complex, Shahjahanpur Thana Bhaban, Integrated Education Programme Building for Visually Impaired Persons, Shibganj Upazila Muktijoddha Complex Bhaban, Sicharpar Cluster Village Project-3, 12 Ashrayan Project at Sariakandi, Irrigation Programme through Solar Panel at Adamdighi upazila, District Family Planning Office Bhuilding and 10-bed Mother and Children Welfare Centre at Nungola of Bogra Sadar.

She also laid the foundation stones of the construction of Khoisha Kuri bridge on Sariakandi highway, Joybhoga bridge, Hatfulbari bridge on Bogra-Sariakandi highway, 10-km rural road at Sonatala, Bogra Press Club Bhaban and extended part of Sonatala Upazila Council administrative building and its hall room.