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Towards a safe, sustainable Dhaka

Experts suggest tackling corruption in dev process, reclaiming canals and open spaces

Staff Correspondent
Safe and inclusive urbanisation in keeping with the global SDGs will remain a far cry unless political hooliganism and corruption in development process are tackled, said urban experts at a discussion yesterday.
Bangla daily Prothom Alo and Save the Children organised the event on "Safe and sustainable city: progress and challenges to implementation" at the newspaper's Karwan Bazar office.
Prof Kazi Marufiil Haq of Development Studies at Dhaka University said sustainable urbanisation and balanced distribution of development are not achievable unless there is a change in the abovementioned practices.
Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Atiqul Islam said, "Surely, there is a question of corruption in the development process, as the prime minister too said in parliament that she would show zero tolerance in this regard."
Prof Md Akter Mahmud, general secretary of Bangladesh Institute of Planners, said essentially, urbanisation according to the UN sustainable goals has to be inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable to bring about fundamental social and humane qualitative changes.
"Development merely in numerical figures, concentrated in Dhaka city alone, is not enough," he said, adding that it has to bring a qualitative social change with equal distribution of wealth across cities
and regions.
At the discussion, Mayor Atiqul said population density in per square kilometre in Dhaka's city corporation area is 49,000. The speakers said a city can never achieve sustainable development with such an overwhelming density.
Dr Khurshid Zabin Hossain Taufique, director of Urban Development Directorate, said with the highest fatality, pedestrian passage as an urban public transport mode is unsafe in the capital. The transport system can be streamlined with a mere tuning of the plan and setting priority with public transport mode on top, he added.
Md Ashraffil Islam, project director of Dhaka's Detailed Area Plan (revision), said eastern part of the city is still a green field and can be developed as a planned city.
He said 88 percent roads in the city are less than 20 feet wide, making further planned urbanisation difficult. The revised DAP is going to have a proposal for 627 neighbourhood-based schools and over 100 primary health care centres at a proposed cost ofTk 27,000 crore, he said.
The DAP project director suggested that 566-kilometre-long recorded public canal network within Dhaka be reclaimed for water-based transport network, pedestrian passage, beautification and ecological balance.
He said 75 percent of Dhaka's 21 lakh structures should be developed in a
Towards
FROM PAGE 3 planned way for a planned city.
Iqbal Habib, member secretary of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (Bapa), said parks and playgrounds in the capital are mostly abused by government utility service providers, depriving children of open space.
The 7,000-acre open spaces presently in names of various government agencies must be open for public use and more such spaces should be created in the process of urbanisation, he said.
Prothom Alo Associate Editor Abdul Qayyum moderated the discussion.