Taib Ahmed
Although Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha had designed the Detailed Area Plan for the Dhaka city, the planning standard was not accurate, according to the review committee formed to revise the DAP.
The 12-member review committee, which is entitled to rectify the DAP, held two meetings in this regard and found that the draft DAP contained many flaws. Against this backdrop, the review committee formed a technical working group to devise a proper planning standard.
BRAC University vice-chancellor Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, also head of the review committee, said they had recently formed the technical working group which would set a planning standard aiming at rectifying the DAP.
‘Rajuk maintained no planning standard in preparing the DAP rather it just finalised whatever the four consulting firms did,’ Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan member-secretary Iqbal Habib, also a member of the review committee, told New Age on Saturday.
Sources in Rajuk said the technical working group would sit today to devise the next course of action.
A Rajuk high official admitted that Rajuk couldn’t follow any planning standard saying, ‘Rajuk does not have enough experts to devise any planning standard.’
Rajuk had finalised the draft DAP without bringing any change into the draft submitted by the four consulting firms, the official said.
Rajuk had appointed four private organisations — Sheltech, Development Design Consultants, Engineering and Planning Consultants Ltd and Ghani Bangla — to prepare the DAP dividing the city into five divisions.
Reassessing the land use proposal of the draft DAP and whether the draft goes by the land use proposals in the DMDP structure plan, the review committee would submit its report by March 31.
The committee will also look into proposals on how the draft DAP will be implemented.
DAP, one of the major components of the Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan, couldn’t be prepared in 12 years and the deadline for finalising it was extended recently for the fourth time up to June this year, leading to unplanned urbanisation.
DAP was initiated in 2004 with an estimated cost of Tk 22.47 crore, but the project cost now stands at Tk 24.94 crore. It is important for urban planning and ensuring proper use of land of the 1530 sq km area of the capital.
Drafted in 1995, the 20-year DMPD plan was approved by the government in 1997 with retrospective effect but it couldn’t be implemented yet for want of the DAP.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
