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Rajuk planners' delay game

Detailed Area Plan scheme remains a far cry while unplanned urbanisation flourishes

SOHEL ISLAM
The Detailed Area Plan (DAP) of Dhaka city has not seen daylight although the process of its implementation started in 1999.
The non-implementation of DAP is contributing to massive unplanned urbanisation in the capital and experts warn that if unplanned development continues at this scale, the city, like many others in the world, would become unliveable.
According to sources, DAP project is deliberately delayed to avoid detection of illegal buildings, which some Rajuk planners had approved in underhand
dealings.
Without DAP, the implementation of Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan (DMDP) is facing a serious set back. DAP project was taken up to pinpoint the present status of every locality of the city.
The cost of DAP is about Tk 22 crore which Rajuk will finance from its own fund.
Approached over phone, Rajuk Chairman Iqbal Uddin Chowdhury refused to comment on the allegations.
The DAP project director and Chief Town Planner of Rajuk Kazi Golam Hafiz claimed that 'bureaucratic complications' have delayed the implementaion of DAP.
"Six consultant firms almost finalised
the survey plans for the DAP but the Ministry of Housing and Public Works asked us to stop it as DAP project was not approved by the planning ministry," said Hafiz.
"DAP project was sent for approval of pre-ECNEC (Executive Committee for National Economic Council) twice. It was also sent to the ECNEC meeting in 2001 which directed the finance ministry for issuing final approval," said the project director.
"At last, a meeting has been called on October 13 to finalise DAP with representation of the finance and planning ministry and the hou- sing and public works ministry," said Hafiz.
"DAP will never be implemented if the
incumbent authorities of the Town Planning Department continues to handle it," said an insider of Rajuk, on condition of anonymity.
"There are projects like Pubrachal and Lake Development of Gulshan and Baridhara which have not been approved by the planning ministry but they are being implemented for the sake of protecting the city. Then what really hinders the implementation of DAP remains a question worth asking," said the official source.
Due to non-implementation of DAP, a section of unscrupulous officials of the Town Planning Department are making their fortunes by approving plans of buildings in 24 areas of the city. These
approvals would have been impossible had there been DAP before the approving authority.
It is alleged that the town planning department takes between Tk 50,000 and Tk 5,00,000, depending on the project, to approve the plans of the buildings in the DAP areas.
The six areas are Mirpur to Kamarpara, Kamrangirchar, Keraniganj, Begunbari, north side of Dhaka, Narayangaj and Demra embankment and Uttarkhan. At present all these areas are notorious for unplanned urbanisation.
While Rajuk's town planners are busy dilly-dallying, the situation in many city areas is rapidly deteriorating.