Chaotic grows the cityscape

The scenario is the same - from east to west and north to south. The capital is growing at two square-kilometres and almost half a million people a year, almost unplanned.

Such horizontal and vertical expansions have already started taking toll on individual behaviour, society and environment, say experts, warning of "catastrophic consequences" if not checked immediately.

The present trend of city development is "unscientific and unacceptable", they say.

Absence of policy implementation has resulted in sell-out of a huge chunk of available lowlands to individuals and over-ambitious developers.

Mile after mile of agriculture and lowlands around the city, marked out as flood retention point in the Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan (DMDP) or Master Plan, are being filled.

Developers hardly take into accounts civic amenities such as sewerage, surface drains, electricity, gas, telephone, water, roads and other related facilities.

Experts say the government should immediately intervene and detail a development plan for the fringe areas of the city before it is too late.

A team of The Daily Star reporters has recently visited 30 different areas in the peripheral and inner city areas.

Maniknagar, Mugda, Manda, Badda, Rampura, Basabo, Goran, Meradia, Peyarabagh, Mirbagh, Madhubagh, Khilkhet, Rayerbazar, Hazaribagh, Razabazar, Kanthalbagan, Shewrapara, Kafrul, Ibrahimpur, Pirerbagh, Paikpara, Kalyanpur, Kazipara, Monipur, Senpara, Section 1,2,10 and 11 of Mirpur, Barobagh and North and South Jatrabari all have the same history of unplanned urbanisation.

Upper- and middle-class people have bought chunks of cheap land at low prices and developed them without any intervention from the city planners or regulatory authorities.

So unplanned the development has been that, in some cases, some plots have become inaccessible.

Neither the Rajuk nor the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) nor the Ministry of Housing and Public Works has never bothered to step in and chalk out acceptable plans for these areas. These areas have now become a nightmare for the urban planners.

Profit-making real estate projects such Purbachal, Jhilmil, Uttara third phase, Nikunja and DND aside, the Rajuk has no guidelines for the private-sector individuals who are turning the peripheral areas into veritable concrete jungle.

City-based individuals have bought most agricultural lands at Keraniganj and segmented them into hundreds of one-to-five-katha plots.

The way the capital has expanded Keraniganj will soon come under the DCC. However, if the authorities do not intervene with comprehensive planning, the city would only have another stretch of concrete jungle.

Maniknagar and North Mugda, within a kilometre east of the Motijheel commercial area, and many other areas have become an 'urban nightmare'.

The communities there do not have access to basic civic amenities. The areas have grown as part of the city over the last 15 years under the very nose of the authorities.

Household and industrial wastes litter the narrow streets. The air smells foul. Construction of up to eight-storey buildings is underway along the narrow streets. Construction materials occupy whatever space there is on the streets.

Miazan Road at Maniknagar near the Biswa Road shrinks as it winds into lanes and by-lanes, some hardly three feet in width. Those, too, are occupied by vendors.

The only planned residential area in the locality, the Municipal Staff Quarter, features some five-storey buildings.

There were some open spaces inside the quarter when it was developed in 1985. These have now become dumps for the residents to throw garbage onto. There is no playground for children in the entire area.

Professor Jamilur Reza Choudhury, an expert on urbanisation and a professor of civil engineering, terms such a trend of urbanisation 'totally haphazard'.

While proper plans, such as the DMDP, are available with the government, no one bothers to consult them, he said.

Indiscriminate filling of lowlands around the city would have an adverse impact on environment, as drainage of floodwater would be impossible, he added.

"The city is extremely earthquake-prone and there exists a great risk in constructing buildings on unconsolidated soil," Choudhury said.

Many developers have already started constructing high-rise buildings on filled-up sites around the city, he pointed out.

Professor Nazrul Islam of Dhaka University also emphasised compliance with the DMDP in city development.

The DMDP has clearly defined the development pattern of Dhaka and its peripheral areas, he said. "The DMDP clearly designates all areas of the city and suggests how they should be developed and authorities must respect and follow it while planning otherwise we cannot check urban slums."

"In Dhaka, urbanisation precedes planning because the planning procedure is extremely weak and slow. The Rajuk does not have proper infrastructure or manpower and none of the agencies such as the Dhaka City Corporation knows what their role should be."

Professor Abdul Hakim Sircar of the Institute of Social Welfare at Dhaka University says unplanned urbanisation has structural and environmental impacts on a house and its inhabitants.

An unplanned area deprives a child of ingredients to grow into a healthy citizen, he said.

Professor Sircar, who has worked on juvenile delinquencies, points out that haphazard growth of the city is surely breaking our social norms and values and giving rise to various crimes.

The city has grown into a 'vertical slum' and 'urban silo' where people live without minimum amenities and where community relationship no longer develops and juvenile delinquencies become frequent, he said.

Successive governments have failed to take any concrete measure to strengthen the regulatory bodies and make them accountable through proper planning and monitoring.

After a hue and cry over filling up of Ashuliya recently, the Ministry of Housing and Public Works asked the Rajuk to devise two separate policies and rules on construction of high-rise buildings and filling up of lowlands.

Rajuk experts handed over the drafts in August and November respectively to the sub-committee, convened by the Cabinet Secretary Dr Saadat Husain.

Both proposals are now gathering dust.