Md Emdadul Islam
Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, grown haphazardly over a long period of time without any proper and effective land use planning is now experiencing one of the highest rates of urbanization in the world. The city has reached to its present status after experiencing a range of rulers from different cultures over 400 years, facing a wide variety of politics and governance structures, administrative policies as well as natural calamities, poverty and many other obstacles. Over population, scarcities of buildable land and resources have put tremendous pressure on its infrastructure and urban amenities. City authorities like DIT now RAJUK, DCC now DNCC & DSCC, utility providers like DWASA, DESA & DESCO, Titas Gas etc. transportation agencies like BRTC, BRTA, DTCA etc. and administrative organizations are being unable to provide even minimum benchmark standard for facilities needed. One of the major issues identified for such failure has been lack of coherence between these authorities which has made the local government institutions unproductive. In addition, bureaucratic problems, political influence, lack of appropriate mechanism for land development, ineffective implementation of development policies, poor supervision and monitoring system are continuously creating the opportunity to alter or violate the land use plan. These negative consequences are manifested in spatial planning, physical environmental degradation, social inequities, persisting poverty, inadequate provision of basic utilities, lack of educational and health services, and increasing incidence of different type of crimes and violence.
Dhaka attained significant reputation when the Mughal viceroy Islam Khan had established his capital here. They chose Dhaka because of its central geographical location, its higher topography than rest of the floodplains and most importantly, its proximity to the water routes in the north, east and west. During that period, huge commercial importance was achieved and thus Dhaka became a trading center for the South East Asia from a manufacturing hub of muslin. A number of agricultural and cottage products were manufactured in Dhaka, while the easy-washcotton fabric (Muslin) got attention of the European traders and made them to set up their factories in the city. This fueled the growth of local and global trades including the textile industries. Throughout the 17th century, various such industries and trade centers were established here by different European merchants mainly the Portuguese, the Dutch, theFrench and the English.
After the Mughal Era, as Calcutta became the capital of British India, Dhaka had experienced a physical shrinkage with the huge decrease in population. However, the introduction of Municipal Improvement Act was a significant achievement of this time as it led towards a more governance-oriented approach by shifting colonial agenda away from the pure capitalist notion of East India Company. Lately when the British rulers recognized the importance of Dhaka, they appointed Sir Patrick Geddes, a pioneer town planner to prepare a Master Plan of the city. After his visit in Dhaka, Geddes proposed an outline of the master plan emphasizing on the protection of green belt in Ramna area and widening roads for increased traffic. He also stressed on the conservation of the neighborhood characteristics of localities. But, in the wake and aftermath of the World Wars and India-Pakistan separation movement, the intended development works were not materialized as expected.
As Dhaka became the capital of East Pakistan in 1947, the landscape of Dhaka city changed drastically with a northward expansion and created a “New Dhaka” as the high-class residential area. Motijheel area turned into a major commercial hub from the low-lying marshland in 1954. Dhanmondi area evolved as a residential area after 1955 from being previously adorned with paddyfields.The Mirpur road acted as an axis for the city and the uplands on both sides got occupied up to Mohammadpur and Mirpur. In 1960, government developed these two areas to accommodate the Muslim migrants. Meanwhile a planning authority was much needed by the city and then the Dhaka Improvement Trust (DIT) (later named as Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha (RAJUK) was established for the Dhaka city’s planning and development in 1956. DIT developed a Master Plan and created a few model town plans including Gulshan, Banani, Uttara and Baridhara Model towns. Though these areas were mainly built up for middle income groups, the
inappropriate allocation and increase inproperty value resulted otherwise. These towns are now important centers for the city.
Bangladesh after its liberation in 1971 experienced a rapid urbanization. Various reasons have fueled the rural-urban migration including surplus labor in agriculture, droughts, globalization, systematic failure of rural agriculture and apparent opportunities in the city. With the population growth, the northern highlands of the city soon started to be built up and prime swamps and marshes came to be filled up without any prior planning. The high lands on Dhaka-Tongi route were chosen for residential projects by the planning and development authority. Unfortunately, no serious effort was made to acquire land under a well-planned city scheme to ensure a unified and cohesive growth. The main city developed between the lands of Balu and Turag in the east and west after the devastating 1988 Flood, when flood preventive measures were taken by the side of these rivers. The rapid population growth and scarcity of lands made the private developers to fill up these low lands and to offer various housing schemes. Gradually vertical development for residential and commercial use has also become a common practice.
It is to be noted that Dhaka experienced an incredible rise in population growth after 1971 which made the 1959 Dhaka master plan awfully inconsistent to keep pace with. Growth and urban sprawl were mainly controlled by its people and their opportunities, rather than the influence of the local government on how the city should
be developed. Hence, Dhaka
continued to grow according to its old plan as it was beyond the city governance capacity to cope with its population growth.
(To be continued)
Md Emdadul Islam is an Engineer-Planner -cum- Urban Analyst.
