Developmental activities within the metropolitan areas of Dhaka should raise confidence that regardless of the on going corona situation and apparent hopeless signs of waterlogging, the continuing pace of developmental activities will likely regenerate Dhaka in the aesthetic and the environmental sense in the longer run while also easing major problems like traffic jams and water logging. One only has to look at the Hathirjheel project under the present government. Once full of filth and squalor this prime location in the city was rescued and made into a scenic site for viewers that look much like Sydney. It is also facilitating transportation between northern parts of the city and easing traffic gridlocks every day.
Apart from the Hathirjheel project, a number of spacious flyovers have been completed in the city which have come as a great relief to commuters who faced so much harassments in the past from never ending traffic jams. The biggest of these flyovers in central Dhaka, the Gulistan-Jatrabari flyover, has been operational for some years. Some auxiliary works of this flyover are also gradually heading towards completion. When these works would be fully completed, this flyover is expected to bring further great relief to its users on a daily basis.
All of these accomplishments in Dhaka city, not seen in the past under any government, should help to convince the skeptics that Dhaka is far from being a hopeless case or that given sound plans and their sincere implementation, this city of over 15 million people can be our pride in all respects. The developmental activities, so far, should only reinforce the view that Dhaka can be saved and restored to become a truly dynamic and healthful city for its residents and visitors, sooner rather than later.
The problems ofDhaka are still very much capable of a solution. Dhaka has come to its current apparently undesirable state in many places singularly for the reason of lack of ‘planning’. But as the recent planned activities showed, things can be reversed for the better provided further deterioration is not allowed and all newer activities are done under a planned framework.
From all over the country, mindless migrations to Dhaka have been taking place–out of an expectation of earning a livelihood and better income opportunities — with the city’s present capacities proving hardly enough to withstand the rising pressures from the endless streams of the new arrivals. The need, therefore, is starting very keenly or seriously strategic planning at the national level to create strong local governments coupled with greater activities to create local growth centres such as the ones that were envisioned under the upazilla model of the eighties.
As for one of Dhaka’s very serious problems, traffic jams, the same can be addressed further very well through only relocating some establishments which are keeping occupied a great deal of spaces within the core areas of the city. The freed spaces can then be used to build roads and other transport related infrastructures to swiftly bring about massive relief to commuters in the city. For instance,The Kamlapoor rail station can be gradually moved out to Tongi and beyond . Dhaka Cantonment may be gradually moved out of the city. This area is a major impediment to traffic movement. If it is moved out to Gazipoor much of the city’s traffic congestion will ease permanently. Similarly, the Dhaka Central Jail in the old city can be moved away from its present site that would set free a lot of ground for building roads in the old city areas.
Dhaka is growing haphazardly in all directions. Thus, we must without delay develop the adjacent districts of Dhaka like Narayanganj, Gazipoor , Tangail, Mymensingh, Narshingdi, Comilla and Brahmanbaria to ease migration pressures on Dhaka.
Various city suburbs planned as residential areas are now suffering commercial and industrial encroachments. The residential characteristics of these places must be protected and promoted by regulatory activities of Rajuk and Dhaka City Corporation. These two bodies must be obliged to exercise their true role of city planners and controllers.
The thing to note is that there are no grounds for total despair. With sound plans and their relentless implementation, Dhaka city can make a turnaround as a beautiful and comfortable city . This prospect is really there.
