Implementing DAP
The government hurriedly enacted the Detailed Area Plan for greater Dhaka City; when already considerable damage had been inflicted on the environmental conditions. Billions of taka had already been invested by the land and building developers over the decades. Thus the market condition has been changed; and there would be a migratory tendency from the affected areas; and the pricing conditions would mark sharp rise and fall.
Then there is the question of firm implementation of the rules enacted. There are powerful vested groups who pull the strings through the back doors (the prevailing political culture).
Add another drawback: the ministries are not technically oriented (pen-pushers from the colonial days). Then the MPs misuse their power and position. The coordination culture is poor amongst the public agencies involved in the projects; and lethargic implementation takes its toll. The civil service has been politicized; and there is no national consensus between the ruling regime and the opposition; with the result that the continuity of implementation of ongoing projects is abruptly halted with the change of regime.
Now another hurdle is being created by encouraging the setting up of satellite towns around Dhaka capital city. Dhaka city is located within wet and marshy lands, thus discouraging horizontal expansion.
An easier solution lies in decentralisation of Dhaka; and encouraging the development of the divisional and district headquarters, so that people do not have to come to Dhaka metropolis so frequently to complete their assignments. There is no crowding effect in New Delhi and Islamabad. The Southern and Northern districts are being neglected officially, with the result that people of all income groups have to migrate to Dhaka, for one reason or the other.
The transport problem in overcrowded Dhaka defied solution. It is not technically easy to maintain transport services with the satellite towns; as the railways and the IWT sectors were neglected, paying undue importance to the development of roads, bridges and culverts (in the delta region). There is an unhealthy tendency to go for mega projects in non-essential areas.
This tendency to cling to power in Dhaka is not in public interest (considering the highest density of population in the world in Bangladesh: over 1,000 persons per sq km; in an area of mere 147,570 sq km). Disperse the political leaders in the divisions and districts, for non-distant operation and management in local areas.
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