Dhaka 4.0: Towards a more liveable city

The city has demonstrated its willingness to adopt contemporary technologies such as drone-powered surveys to understand the risk of dengue spread. Dhaka 4.0 needs to increase such adoption of new technologies to improve liveability

The year 2021 ended with multiple accomplishments for Dhaka city. 

In December last year, it completed the third and largest trial run (11 kilometres) of its metro rail line with a peak speed of 100km per hour.  Additionally, one of the mobile network operators kicked off its trial operations with 5G technology. While it will take some time to make these services operational and available to the public, the progress increases the optimism about the city's liveability.

While the pandemic has created a new normal, the adoption of Industry 4.0 is progressing fast and, in certain instances, at an accelerated speed. 

In the era of Industry 4.0, it would be worthwhile to rethink Dhaka's redevelopment from the perspective of making it a more liveable city (Dhaka 4.0) and to benchmark its evolution with that of cities worldwide.

In June 2021, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) published the Global Liveability Index to provide a perspective on the best and worst liveability conditions across various locations in the world. The study focused on how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected liveability worldwide.

The EIU ranking has seen significant changes in its past rankings.  The pandemic has led all cities to repair and reconfigure their infrastructure in order to prepare for the new normal. Dhaka ranked 137th on the EIU's liveability index.

At the onset of the pandemic, most countries had imposed restrictions on international travel, both inbound and outbound.  At the same time, most cities issued stay-at-home orders and locked down public places such as parks, restaurants, and theatres.

Quite interestingly, when countries enforced stricter border controls, cities within those countries realised that they could relax some of the restrictions safely. As a result, the cities that had been able to keep their public places open to residents while enjoying the stricter protection imposed at the international borders also ranked favourably with respect to liveability. 

Also, relatively open cities meant relatively better job opportunities for urban workers.  Hence, better liveability also supported better livelihoods.

The other important factor that emerged from the EIU study was the state of health infrastructure. Most cities struggled to provide adequate health infrastructure to their residents. Within this scenario, cities that could offer better care to their residents scored higher ranks.

Health infrastructure included taking care of sick residents, providing adequate testing and isolation facilities, and providing vaccines to all.

Many cities could not provide testing and hospitalisation facilities to residents who were sick with Covid-19.  Similarly, others had to suspend regular healthcare operations to keep the basic Covid-19 care running. Quite obviously, those cities ranked lower on the index. Availability of healthcare for residents of Dhaka will continue to influence the city's liveability. 

Bangladesh has made great strides in controlling and eradicating some of the diseases that spread due to poor sanitation and drinking water. However, tropical diseases such as seasonal surges in dengue remain an important health issue.

The city has already demonstrated its willingness to adopt contemporary technologies such as drone-powered surveys to understand the risk of dengue spread. Dhaka 4.0 needs to increase such adoption of new technologies and incorporate them into regular health services to improve liveability. 

However, there are other areas beyond health services. Liveable infrastructure is one of those important components. While development of the mass rapid transit system like metro rail is ongoing, telecommunication infrastructure in Dhaka needs improvement. A more liveable city should have robust infrastructure to facilitate telecommuting. 

New generation technologies such as 5G are expected to close the infrastructural gaps in this area. While the trial run started with one mobile network operator in December 2021, the spectrum auction is likely to happen in 2022, followed by a rollout for the public.

A more liveable city also focuses on environment-friendly infrastructure to keep the city greener. Adoption of green tech in all programmes would help achieve this.

For example, increasing the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) would help curb carbon emissions, thereby improving air quality.  The apex regulatory body, the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, has started finalising the EV policy to expedite the import and manufacturing of EVs in Bangladesh. Leveraging these new climate-friendly policies to improve the city's infrastructure will enhance its liveability. 

Another critical component of a liveable city is the availability of education infrastructure. With the onset of the pandemic, educational institutions have been largely shut down for two consecutive years. While the government has taken many effective measures to facilitate remote learning, the overall impact on children's education has been significant. 

According to a situational analysis report published by the Unicef and the Unesco, the education of 37 million children in Bangladesh has been disrupted due to the pandemic-induced lockdown of educational institutions. Being an urban area with higher affordability of smartphones for education, children in Dhaka have probably had better access to remote education. A more liveable city should ensure uninterrupted education for all categories of students living there.

As the city is passing through the third wave of the pandemic, the aspirations towards making Dhaka 4.0 a more liveable city must factor in the current circumstances. The authorities responsible for the development of Dhaka should also start assessing their ongoing and upcoming development initiatives and reconfigure their plans towards the goal of greater liveability.

The writer is a partner at PwC.  Views are personal.