Gulshan South Park finally to become a public park

Gulshan South Park, at long last, is going to be turned into a public park by Dhaka City Corporation (DCC).
It is pathetic that the DCC took two years to reach this decision after freeing the park from a 25-year-long illegal occupancy by 416 of its sweeper families.
Since the park was freed in the first week of October 2005, ignoring formal directives from the then Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and repeated pressures from the ministry of public works, DCC remained dubious over developing a park on the site and was hell-bent on using the land for commercial purposes.
Following the eviction of the illegal settlement, the DCC tenaciously built a six-foot-high solid wall around the parkland although its chief executive officer M Saifuddin Ahmed had told The Daily Star on November 2, 2005 that DCC would build a three-foot see-through fence around it.
According to DMDP (Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan) structural plan, boundary wall of a park must be see-through, said experts.
After wasting time and spending public money on the solid boundary wall, DCC now has to tear down the wall to replace that with a see-through one.
According to sources, city mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka has recently given his official approval for hiring a consultant to work out a plan for the development of a public park on the location.
It will, however, take around two months to get the proposed design of the park approved by beautification and park development advisory committee.
Chief town planner of DCC, Sirajul Islam, said, "We will dismantle the existing six-foot high solid boundary wall, leaving two to three feet height at the base and install transparent iron grille upto eye-level height so that the park remains visible from outside."
As per the proposal, DCC will initially rebuild the boundary wall and develop walkways around the park on priority basis. There will also be a children's' corner with non-mechanised rides.
As per terms of reference (TOR), the landscaping consultant will get 45 days to survey the existing features of the parkland, prepare a drainage design (plumbing), electrical design and a landscaping master plan.
The South Park, also known as Taltala Park and earmarked in the layout plan of Gulshan Model Town of 1962, has been abandoned since it was reclaimed from illegal occupancy.
Despite repeated directives from the PMO and objections raised by civil society and the media, the DCC took a mysterious stand and lingered on the park project.
Back in December 2005, DCC Mayor Khoka told Star City, "Our plan is to build a community centre on the open space alongside a park."
In 2005, following a writ petition filed by Gulshan Society and two local residents, a High Court bench comprising Justice Md. Abdul Matin and Justice Md. Rezaul Haque issued a rule on December 15, 2005 upon the DCC and its chief executive officer to explain why they should not be directed to refrain from using the Gulshan South Park for any purposes other than developing and maintaining a green park.
The DCC earlier undertook a Tk 77-lakh development scheme for the park in second phase.
The advisory committee for beautification and park development rejected the scheme on the ground that the design did not conform to the concept of aesthetics for an open public park, said a DCC official.
The DCC took over the South Park along with 42 other parklands from Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) in1982 to develop and maintain those as public parks.
At that time, Rajuk handed over 3.99 acres of parkland to the DCC. Whereas, the latter occupied 6.33 acres of land by filling up a portion of adjacent Gulshan Lake
Though entrusted with maintenance of around 50 public parks and playgrounds in the capital, DCC, over the past two and a half decades, has consistently facilitated encroachment and destruction of those, denying the city dwellers a little respite with open spaces.
State of most of the public parks is appalling while many are cleverly encroached on under DCC's authorisation for commercial use.