Urbanise east Dhaka in a planned way

Dhaka is the biggest city of the country and hub of economic activities and contributes 30% of the GDP. The current jurisdictions of the Dhaka South and North city corporations are surrounded by the Tongi Khal (canal) tothe north, the Turag River to the west, the Buriganga River to the south, and the Balu-Shitalakshya River system to the east.

Dhakas urban population is more than 2.3 crore with a growth rate of about 3.5%. Dhakas Population Density is more than 30,000 per Kilometre and is the highest in the world. Over 200 registered motor vehicles enter the city streets every day. Dhaka faces seemingly impossible challenges. Despite unrelenting efforts to upgrade the citys infrastructure, congestion is increasing, and travel speeds are declining.

More than a fourth of its inhabitants live in slums, pollution is increasing, and the city sits at the bottom of global livability rankings. If these challenges are not addressed, it will be difficult for Dhaka to become a prosperous global city, and therefore difficult for Bangladesh to join the ranks of upper-middle-income countries. Things couldn be more intense and crowded.
Urbanization is a crucial component in economic development. Most efforts and resources have focused on trying to fix Dhaka by building flyovers, developing mass transport, improving drainage and providing sanitation in the western part of the city. There are some projects that has been designed to cover some part of Eastern Dhaka.

The Dhaka City Corporation has been divided into North and South City Corporation but so far the development and infrastructure is concern, the city has been divided by the Pragati Sarani in East and West Dhaka City.  The urbanization of the city originated along the northern corridor of the central region, and then expanded westward.  Its Eastern half is mostly rural but has the potential to develop rapidly.  Accounting for 40 percent of the citys surface, East Dhaka has the advantage of being within 5 kms of prosperous areas like Gulshan, which can help support its growth through capital and human resource investments.

The story of Dhaka city is not different from other cities of the world. Disparity over different part of cities is very common. East Dhaka, an area with a surface like that of a major European city, could be developed with the right urban infrastructure from the start, decongesting the current city and becoming a modern economic pole for the country. The time to act is now. East Dhaka is already being developed in an unplanned way and this opportunity may soon pass. Due to unplanned development cities like Dhaka become waterlogged, often coming to a standstill during the heavy rains of the monsoon season. And service delivery is uneven.

Bangladesh have solution in hand as revealed in World Bank study and experience of other cities. One of the remarkable examplesof transforming under-used lands of some part of the cities is Podung, the East Shanghai.

Its eastbound growth in Pudong from a marshy rice field in 1980s to a powerful modern global financial centre in less than three decades. World Bank study reportedly found many similarities between present day Dhaka and Shanghai of the early 1990s and therefore, asserted that Dhaka could learn from the Shanghai-Pudong experience to transform itself into a modern global city.

There has never been any urbanisation of the Shanghai-Pudong scale within such a short time in the history of the world. Shanghai has turned into a massive economic powerhouse and a world class city after decades of planning and development.

Shanghai took a very ambitious plan for the impending growth of developing Pudong across the Huangpu river. It created a massive urban relief valve with a completely new planned business and financial city centre. There were two important considerations behind this: first, to establish Shanghai as the premier business centre with state-of-the-art infrastructures and facilities, and second, to relieve the pressure of redevelopment on the older city and heritage areas. The new tall towers in Pudong, the business/commercial district in downtown, and the brand new Pudong international airport have helped transform Shanghai into a modern global city.

Dhaka city is well on its way to becoming a South Asian hub. Experts see it as akin to pre-developed Shanghai. Like Shanghai, and its former rural area of Pudong, Dhaka has a lot of lands on the east that can be reformed for urbanisation and infrastructural development. Pudong was mostly composed of low-quality housing before the 90s. But an all-out effort turned that area into a vibrant nexus for finance, trade and high-tech industries. The east side of Dhaka has the same potential, and like Pudong, adopting a national-level strategy can quickly propel the city to new heights.

Much of this success was due to Chinas strategic approach to the development of East Shanghai (Pudong) and to its integration with the rest of the city. The "Pudong miracle" transformed Shanghai into the connecting point between its hinterland and the rest of the world, and that in just about 25 years. But this success required a clear vision-one that was embraced by government agencies, private investors and citizens- supported by careful planning and tight implementation.

The interventions proposed in the WB report could enable Dhaka to comfortably host an extra 5 million inhabitants, and to create 1.8 million additional jobs, compared to a continuation of business as usual. The interventions would cost about $15 billion, but they could lead to $53 billion in increased economic activity per year by 2035. They would also result in an improved quality of life for Dhakas inhabitants and alleviate many of the challenges the city currently faces. Dhaka has no choice but to transform and develop as a world class city. Currently, there are many ideas such as eastbound expansion of the city across the Balu and Sitalakshya rivers.

Other cities in the world have gone through such transformations. For example, only 25 years ago the now vibrant East Shanghai (Pudong) area was roughly as rural as East Dhaka is today.

The experience of Shanghai and other cities shows that success requires a clear strategy. One that is embraced by government agencies, private investors and development organizations, and supported by careful planning and tight implementation.

As Pudongs story suggests, the success of a strategic vision on such a scale will depend on a strong political will, a clear mandate by authorities, good coordination between institutions and concerted implementation.  

The time is running out. Many parts of East Dhaka are being developed spontaneously by private developers are filling vast tracts of land with sand, and households and firms are encroaching the edges of the few roads there. The proposed East Dhaka project is becoming costlier and difficult to rescue the lands from the real estate developers.

The writer is Non-Government Adviser, Bangladesh Competition Commission