URBAN planners and environmentalists have expressed concern about the recent government approval of amendments to the detailed area plan for Dhaka. The interim government on October 19 approved in principle amendments to the area plan and the draft Dhaka Metropolitan Building Construction Rules 2025, which will soon be notified. Experts at a press conference on November 4 said that Dhaka is already among the least liveable cities in the world, ranking near the bottom in both the Global Liveability Index and the Safe Cities Index. Its population density, a staggering 600 people an acre, is five times the maximum recommended by the United Nations for healthy cities. Experts warn that the revised plan is reckless, noting that the original cap of 250 people per block, meant to gradually ease Dhaka鈥檚 extreme population stress, has now been raised to 300 per block. Such sharp increases will inevitably push more people into already strained neighbourhoods, worsen traffic congestion and water stagnation and degrade open and green spaces. Instead of prioritising strategies to decentralise and decongest the city and improve basic urban services, the government move will exacerbate the very crises that the plan was originally meant to address.
Experts speculate that the revision and amendments are made to serve the interests of real estate developers and other business interests. The detailed area plan was notified in 2022 and revising it twice within just three years, under pressure from real estate interests, is a major obstacle to the effective practice of urban planning. Contrary to the government鈥檚 claim that the amendments are made considering environmental cost, experts are concerned that construction of very tall buildings under Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha will worsen its chronic civic and environmental problems. Although the authorities say that the decision to raise the floor area ratio is a step towards 鈥榤odern and sustainable urban growth,鈥� it appears to be a policy shift that prioritises vertical expansion without addressing horizontal drawbacks. Dhaka鈥檚 drainage system is inadequate, its transport network overstretched, its open spaces rapidly shrinking and its environmental assets are under severe threat. More than 22,500 acres of wetlands, flood-flow zones and canals have already been filled since 2010 while unplanned development has encroached on almost every remaining public space. Without infrastructure development and reclaiming the lost wetland and canals, a higher floor area ratio will only aggravate the living conditions in Dhaka.
The government should, therefore, not accommodate short-term commercial interests at the expense of long-term urban health. Instead of repeatedly revising the plan to make room for tall buildings, it should consider the demand of the urban planners, which includes a logical population density cap and the city鈥檚 decentralisation through implementing the plan as originally conceived.