DAP being prepared only to gather dust

Trackback URL

Download PDF

Rajuk has nearly completed compilation of the Detailed Area Plan (DAP) of 1,528 square kilometre area of the capital amid fears that the expensive document would not deter unplanned urbanisation due to lack of will of the implementing authorities.
The Tk 23.22 crore DAP is part of the Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan (DMDP) or master plan that should have been completed in 1997 along with its two other components — Structural Plan and Urban Area Plan–of the city. The DMDP was gazetted in 1997 without the DAP component as the foreign consultants concerned expressed their inability to take up the DAP work that involved intensive fieldwork.

Rajuk sources said the DAP would be available to its planning wing and all other organisations involved in development of the city and its periphery. The DAP is documenting every plot, structure, open space, road and wetland within the 1,528 km area with four local consultants working at field level since August 2004. It would enable Rajuk to approve building construction plans within its jurisdiction ensuring a healthy environment, desired population density and proper civic amenities.

“We have completed over 70 per cent work on the DAP and hope to finish the job by December this year,” said a top official of Rajuk, requesting anonymity.

But other sources said ever since the DMDP legally came in force in 1997, Rajuk officials have overtly ignored it. Rajuk has not grown any mechanism to consult the DMDP before approving any plan. It has approved construction plans of thousands of buildings of all sizes violating the law of the land. It has done so despite ‘clear guidelines’ prepared and incorporated in the DMDP at a cost of over Tk 200 million provided by the UNDP.

“What is the use of DMDP when nobody cares about it? It is a waste of money if these expensive documents only gather dust at the offices of Rajuk’s Authorised Officers,” said an official.

Sources however said there is no dearth of government organisations involved in the process of implementing the DMDP with its three components. It is mandatory to abide by the DMDP. The last meeting on the DAP held at Rajuk on August 8 was attended by top officials of 31 different organisations and 11 others, they mentioned.

“But none of them (at the meeting) talked about implementation of the city’s master plan. They agreed that coordination among service organisations could improve the situation but none said anything on how Rajuk officials could be made to follow the master plan,” said one source.

“There are committees, sub-committees and service providers — all involved in the process of the plan approval — but no area of the city is growing decently,” he added.

Leave a Reply