Poor planning turns Dhaka least liveable

More than eight lakh people live only in 13 square kilometres at ward-2 (Goran) in Dhaka south city but there is no government high school, college or healthcare facilities for them..
Only one government primary school is there while the people of the ward are also deprived of public transport and other public facilities including adequate roads and utility services. 
Ward councillor Mohammad Anisur Rahman said that the ward already lost liveability with overpopulation and poor public facilities. 
Like Goran most of the areas of the capital, except some posh residential areas, have lost liveability with huge population beyond the capacity of public services.
The UN’s Habitat data, released on May 11, week showed Dhaka as the densest city in the world with a density of 44,500 people per sq km while Dhaka was the fourth least liveable city in the world in the Global Liveability Ranking 2016.
Experts blamed the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha for ignoring density in zoning and framing policies in the previous and existing plans for the capital. 
They said that urban density was always considered an important factor in understanding how cities functioned, but none of the previous plans prepared for Dhaka addressed the density issue.
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology urban and regional planning professor Sarwar Jahan, who was involved in the preparation of the existing Detail Area Plan, admitted that the previous plans did not address density. 
He highlighted the importance of considering density in planning saying that a city could never be liveable if density was ignored in its planning. 
Sarwar said that there should be a maximum limit of population density of an urbanised area to ensure adequate civic facilities for the dwellers.
Bangladesh Institute of Planners general secretary Md Akter Mahmud said that the previous plans totally ignored the density causing the city to become overpopulated and least liveable one. 
He said that the provision of floor area ratio in the building construction rules for Dhaka city formulated in 2008 allowed maximum 350 people to live in an acre of land in residential area while the density was now about 650 people per acre in the residential areas of Dhaka.
He said that he had already requested Rajuk to address the population density in the new detailed area plan, now under preparation, to make Dhaka a liveable city.
Rajuk director for DAP project Md Ashraful Islam said that they were addressing the issue of density for the first time in the detail area plan as there was a provision of zoning the city based on density in the project’s terms of reference.
He said that they would make a comprehensive plan considering density, the capacity of utility services, transportation facilities and area characteristics of the locality.

 

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