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Dhaka turns unfit to live in few years

Meeting calls for DAP to be implemented with high priority

Staff Correspondent
Dhaka will be uninhabitable within a few years if the plan to expand road network, mentioned in the city's master plan, is not implemented soon, Housing and Public Works Secretary ASM Rashidul Hai said.
He said the next government should implement the Detailed Area Plan (DAP) for the city with high priority.
He said this yesterday during a vicws-exchange meeting arranged for Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha's (Rajuk) final draft of the DAP.
From October 5, public hearing on the final draft report of the DAP will begin and continue for two
months. The final DAP is scheduled to be published on December 16.
He said a city needs roads on 25 percent of its total area but Dhaka only has roads on eight percent of its landmass and this is why the traffic situation is deteriorating.
"If the situation continues like this, city dwellers will not able to come out of their homes," he said.
"To solve the problems of Dhaka city, a huge road network is necessary and that is why construction of a large number of roads is mentioned in the DAR" he added.
"If the next government implements the proposals in the DAR Dhaka will be habitable for the next 100 years. But if it is not done, it will become uninhabitable within the next two to four years,” he said.
Rajuk took the initiative under a 20-year (1995-2015) Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan (DMDP). The DAP is a major component of the DMDR
"We prepared the DAP so that the city could be expanded in a planned way and to reduce haphazard growth," said Rashidul.
There arc areas mapped in the DAP as residential, commercial, industrial and educational zones, he said.
Urban planning experts, environmentalists and public representatives during the viewsexchange meeting held at the Rajuk Auditorium demanded the draft plan be made public before the public hearings. They also demanded area-based hearings so that people could give their opinions properly.
Rashidul said they will complete the report by mid December and make it public on December 16 as a gift to Dhaka residents on Victory Day.
Prof Muzaffer Ahmad, president of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan. said many proposals in the draft DAP were made without considering economic and social feasibility.
He said the draft did not mention the role of local bodies or development agencies in the implementation of the DAP.
"If we fail to ensure facilities to the residents of the city, the plan would become worthless," hesaid.
He, however, said "Public hearing is a good introduction to our country and it has to be continued.”
Abdul Haque, representative of Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), said there is no city in the world that grows by filling canals and rivers.
He claimed Rajuk, entrusted with regulating land filling in Dhaka, failed to do its job properly. The filling up of water bodies had increased after Rajuk was formed.
Rashidul said areas that have already been filled up will be identified in the DAP and actions will be taken against those responsible.
The DAP divided the city into five groups; A, B, C, D and E.
Group-B, which covers areas of Narayanganj and the DND area, identifies waterlogging as the main problem.
Khandaker M Ansar Hossain of Engineering and Planning Consultants Ltd said they proposed to expand the canals of the DND area for using them as retention reservoirs.
Setting up two more pump stations at Fatullah and south of Adamzi EPZ and connecting all canals to three pump stations has also been proposed, he said.