Development of the capital vs Tejgaon airport
of a dead end, writes Iqbal Habib****** | Wednesday, 21 December 2011
of a dead end, writes Iqbal Habib******
The development of Dhaka city as a post-independence capital has been different from its 350 years of development prior to its liberation. Capital-centric development of the administrative, business, education and health sectors has led to excessive migration to the city, and along with it, an unchecked population explosion has given rise to its abnormal growth. In the last 36 years, the size of Dhaka city has extended by approximately 18 times, and its population escalated by a staggering 25 times. This entire situation has been a consequence of unplanned urbanisation, because of the absence of a master plan or proper supervision on the part of the administration. Thus, it was a journey in time, without a vision, and the city has paid the price. It has been transformed into a city of congested traffic and of water logging, overflowing with people. The burden of an uncontrollably multiplying population, its demands, and unsupervised state of affairs has taken its toll; the city's vast potential has remained untapped, and has been smothered by the weight of these issues. All around the city, water bodies and open fields are critically endangered. Efforts have been made in the last decade to develop the city in a planned manner, but owing to lack of political foresight and resolution, they now stand on the verge of a dead end. And so, due to unequal division of wealth and opportunities, and the absence of a cohesive transportation system depending on land, waterways as well as railways, a city of massive potential is well on its way to becoming uninhabitable. The rapidly growing city extends from the banks of the Buriganga in the south towards the north. And along the way, the location of the old airport, abandoned in 1988, and Cantonment, divides the city into two parts-one extending towards the west through Agargaon and Shamoli to Mirpur; the other stretching towards the east from Mohakhali through Banani towards Uttara. Unplanned development along these two diverging sections, starting from Bijoy Sharani, poses a serious threat to the several planned initiatives throughout the city. Consequently, a large population in the northern regions of the city has fallen victim to traffic congestion and water logging. As a result this promising journey along the north has ended in stagnancy. On that note I would like to bring to attention some recent important city development initiatives which have stopped at a dead end: 1. In the last two decades, a proposal to create a tunnel below the abandoned airport runway to connect the west facing road in front of Shaheen College to the southern corner of the Agargaon Boys' High School at Rokeya Sharani was put forwarded, in an attempt to control road traffic. However, during the term of the last Caretaker Government, not only the move was hindered, but also a large number of trees were felled to create a complicated 'loop road' and thereby the future materialization of the initially proposed solution was rendered impractical. 2. In the last decade the Peoples' Republic of China has offered to install a permanent exhibition centre for the display of local products, but it has been neglected raising various excuses, and after a circuitous process of permission and re-permission, the offer was almost declined. 3. According to the Air Force, the abandoned airport at Tejgaon is an important operational structure and thus a 'strategic asset!'. Presently out of the three squadrons based in the area, two are helicopter squadrons which depend on rotary engines and need shorter runways, and hence do not require height restriction for high rises. The remaining squadron, Special Flight Unit, operates two C130 planes which require short distance runways and seldom use the runway. This airport did not even have an approval as domestic status but a STOL (Short Take off Landing) from either CAAB (Civil Aviation Authority Bangladesh) or ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) till 15th of October 2011. Under the instruction of the Honorable Prime Minister the Air force chief had a meeting with the Civil Society team on the 15th where the Air force team completely failed to come up with valid arguments while some quarters 'cunningly' arranged to change the status of Tejgaon airport from STOL to Domestic in the website of CAAB on 16th October. Obviously this raises a number of questions; especially: (i) Whether domestic airports should be under the control of the CAAB instead of Air force, (ii) Why the pavement standard (PCN, Pavement Concrete Number) of the said airport is under 40 and is to be at least 60, (iii) How the 'Parade Ground' structures are in direct obstruction to any plane with wings larger then 'Cessna', etc. 4. In a densely populated city like Dhaka, this unapproved and practically abandoned airport, only a short distance from the Shahjalal International Airport with its height restriction within 4.0 km radius area covers almost 40 per cent of the urbanised area of the capital. In the name of take off- landing approach funnel conservation, the vertical development of the huge city is still obstructed with a 'restriction blanket'. As a result, instead of vertical development of buildings with green spaces at the ground level, low rises are being constructed close together, creating densely packed areas. Thus the process of creating green environment, according to Bangladesh National Building Code and DAP under Dhaka Metropolitan Master Plan, is being hampered. With the same purview, the Airforce and Military Welfare Trust, with complete disregard to the 'restriction blanket' control, i.e., 'CAR-84', constructed the Falcon Tower that has a height of 110 feet and recently the Continued to page 14
The development of Dhaka city as a post-independence capital has been different from its 350 years of development prior to its liberation. Capital-centric development of the administrative, business, education and health sectors has led to excessive migration to the city, and along with it, an unchecked population explosion has given rise to its abnormal growth. In the last 36 years, the size of Dhaka city has extended by approximately 18 times, and its population escalated by a staggering 25 times. This entire situation has been a consequence of unplanned urbanisation, because of the absence of a master plan or proper supervision on the part of the administration. Thus, it was a journey in time, without a vision, and the city has paid the price. It has been transformed into a city of congested traffic and of water logging, overflowing with people. The burden of an uncontrollably multiplying population, its demands, and unsupervised state of affairs has taken its toll; the city's vast potential has remained untapped, and has been smothered by the weight of these issues. All around the city, water bodies and open fields are critically endangered. Efforts have been made in the last decade to develop the city in a planned manner, but owing to lack of political foresight and resolution, they now stand on the verge of a dead end. And so, due to unequal division of wealth and opportunities, and the absence of a cohesive transportation system depending on land, waterways as well as railways, a city of massive potential is well on its way to becoming uninhabitable. The rapidly growing city extends from the banks of the Buriganga in the south towards the north. And along the way, the location of the old airport, abandoned in 1988, and Cantonment, divides the city into two parts-one extending towards the west through Agargaon and Shamoli to Mirpur; the other stretching towards the east from Mohakhali through Banani towards Uttara. Unplanned development along these two diverging sections, starting from Bijoy Sharani, poses a serious threat to the several planned initiatives throughout the city. Consequently, a large population in the northern regions of the city has fallen victim to traffic congestion and water logging. As a result this promising journey along the north has ended in stagnancy. On that note I would like to bring to attention some recent important city development initiatives which have stopped at a dead end: 1. In the last two decades, a proposal to create a tunnel below the abandoned airport runway to connect the west facing road in front of Shaheen College to the southern corner of the Agargaon Boys' High School at Rokeya Sharani was put forwarded, in an attempt to control road traffic. However, during the term of the last Caretaker Government, not only the move was hindered, but also a large number of trees were felled to create a complicated 'loop road' and thereby the future materialization of the initially proposed solution was rendered impractical. 2. In the last decade the Peoples' Republic of China has offered to install a permanent exhibition centre for the display of local products, but it has been neglected raising various excuses, and after a circuitous process of permission and re-permission, the offer was almost declined. 3. According to the Air Force, the abandoned airport at Tejgaon is an important operational structure and thus a 'strategic asset!'. Presently out of the three squadrons based in the area, two are helicopter squadrons which depend on rotary engines and need shorter runways, and hence do not require height restriction for high rises. The remaining squadron, Special Flight Unit, operates two C130 planes which require short distance runways and seldom use the runway. This airport did not even have an approval as domestic status but a STOL (Short Take off Landing) from either CAAB (Civil Aviation Authority Bangladesh) or ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) till 15th of October 2011. Under the instruction of the Honorable Prime Minister the Air force chief had a meeting with the Civil Society team on the 15th where the Air force team completely failed to come up with valid arguments while some quarters 'cunningly' arranged to change the status of Tejgaon airport from STOL to Domestic in the website of CAAB on 16th October. Obviously this raises a number of questions; especially: (i) Whether domestic airports should be under the control of the CAAB instead of Air force, (ii) Why the pavement standard (PCN, Pavement Concrete Number) of the said airport is under 40 and is to be at least 60, (iii) How the 'Parade Ground' structures are in direct obstruction to any plane with wings larger then 'Cessna', etc. 4. In a densely populated city like Dhaka, this unapproved and practically abandoned airport, only a short distance from the Shahjalal International Airport with its height restriction within 4.0 km radius area covers almost 40 per cent of the urbanised area of the capital. In the name of take off- landing approach funnel conservation, the vertical development of the huge city is still obstructed with a 'restriction blanket'. As a result, instead of vertical development of buildings with green spaces at the ground level, low rises are being constructed close together, creating densely packed areas. Thus the process of creating green environment, according to Bangladesh National Building Code and DAP under Dhaka Metropolitan Master Plan, is being hampered. With the same purview, the Airforce and Military Welfare Trust, with complete disregard to the 'restriction blanket' control, i.e., 'CAR-84', constructed the Falcon Tower that has a height of 110 feet and recently the Continued to page 14