Making Dhaka a livable city

It was like a realm of fantasy. During the Eid holidays, we motored around Dhaka like in the good old days. No traffic jam, no crowd. It reminded us of our younger days in the fifties, sixties and seventies of the last century. A resident of Dhaka since late forties, I witnessed Dhaka evolving into an unplanned, congested metropolis from a small provincial town of less than 1 million people. Suddenly, our euphoria vanished and have been haunted by the sights of unbearable traffic congestion, locomotives everywhere and so on.

Dhaka is sinking fast with a population of 17 million. In the last tenure of AL, we heard and read so many times about setting up of satellite towns around Dhaka and connecting them with trains so that people may come to Dhaka by fast trains in the morning for work and leave in the afternoon for their homes like in Calcutta or Bombay. Unfortunately, nothing worthwhile has happened in this regard.

We urge the government to start working towards the goal of dispersing Dhaka's ever growing population. New satellite towns should be built around Dhaka with train and road connections. The capital city Dhaka deserves to emerge as a fine livable city.

Dr. SN Mamoon
Dhaka