They said the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) and Water and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) must be brought under Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) to ensure strong coordination among city utility services.

"City development organisations like Rajuk and similar bodies in other cities will work as new town developers," DCC Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka told reporters at his Gulshan residence in the capital after the meeting.

Chittagong Mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, Rajshahi Mayor Mizanur Rahman Minu, Khulna Mayor Shiekh Tayebur Rahman, Barisal Mayor Majibur Rahman Sarwar and Sylhet Mayor Badruddin Ahmed Kamran were present at the briefing.

Khoka said, "The authority of approving building constriction has to be conferred on city corporations and town development authorities. Rajuk will just work as a cell of the corporations."

Launching separate Wasa offices in Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet and Barisal is not necessary, as the city corporations can do the job, he said.

Besides, the entire public transport sector in the city areas has to be brought under the control of city corporations, which know better about the road network.

Khoka informed the reporters about a 14-point proposal of the mayors.

On the city government concept, Chittagong Mayor Mohiuddin said, "Like other developed countries we want to introduce here the city government. But this will not happen overnight as it requires time to be implemented though enacting laws."

The mayors said they will sit, if need be, with the prime minister, the leader of the opposition and other civil society members to discuss this concept.

Khoka said other proposals are reintroducing the provision of collecting indirect tax from goods-carrier transport crossing the cites.

He said the DCC alone can earn about Tk 100 crore every year if the government allows it to collect the tax, withdrawing a subsidy of Tk 2.5 crore for this purpose.

The mayor said the DCC should be brought under the authority of the Prime Minister's Office as it is the capital city. All ward commissioners have to be promoted as city counsellors with honorary magistracy power.

To keep the footpaths free from encroachments, the city corporations must have their own forces, the proposed.

Land acquisition process for city development work has to be handed to the respective city corporation, Khoka observed.

The mayors condemned the August 17 countrywide serial explosions and demanded that the government should punish the culprits.