Avoiding urban nightmare

Dhaka City now wears a rather unfamiliar look. Unfamiliar in the sense that its roads and alleys are almost vacant. Only the shopping centres and malls are still buzzing with people so busy with break-neck last-minute purchases. How welcome it would be if the capital's roads had witnessed such thin traffic and easy travel everywhere within the city! The large conundrum could certainly avoid the unenviable ranking of the second most unliveable city in the world. Predictions are dire indeed. This city has every chance of surpassing in urban insanity and chaos some of its great rivals in the Third World Countries soon.

This means that a still darker spectre of this city is yet to unfold in the near future. Centralised as this country is, people from every corner feel the pull of this city only to crowd here in the hope of some kind of employment. It still is El Dorado for them. This is at the heart of all problems here. The fact that the city now gives an empty look alone is a proof that an overwhelming majority come from outside, who could very well stay nearer their homes if only there were enough scope for pursuing a livelihood. The city could also avoid having the compulsion of accommodating more people than it can afford.

Now that the country's economy has expanded, there is no point concentrating it into a few urban centres and conglomerates. It would be wise to spread the benefits rationally if not evenly so that employment generation is not limited to any specific area. The bridge over the river Jamuna has brought the North Bengal and the capital closer. With the construction of the proposed bridge over the Padma, the country's south and south-west will suddenly find themselves better linked to the rest of the country.

When that happens, manufacturing units of particular types can be housed in areas where industrial development has stayed at a primary stage. Also development of the Mongla Port can open up another effective corridor to the sea and therefore provide an impetus to the country's export and import through avoidance of land transport all the way from Chittagong to Khulna, Jessore, Kushtia and Rajshahi.

To take the pressure off from the capital, there is no alternative to decentralisation of power and other facilities including industrial units. In future the country might be able to harness its sea resources in a big way when today's large cities will no longer be able to make good use of those for obvious reasons. There will be a need for new locations for investment and manufacture. The country's north, west and south will definitely be strong candidates for such investment.

Urban insanity has gone much too far. One of the ways of arresting it is to go for the proposed satellite towns -a few of which around the capital and others spread in areas at a reasonable distance from five other large cities. A project such as this should be undertaken urgently in order to avoid an urban nightmare.