Messy urban development behind plethora of woes
Friday, 18 June 2010
FE Report
Urban planners have criticised the proposed budget for its inadequate focus on planned development of a large number of urban centres.
It is highly imperative to stop incidents like Nimtoli fire, Begunbari building collapse and Cox's Bazar landslide, they added.
They also said delay in approval of the much-talked about Detailed Area Plan (DAP) of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha is responsible for the planned urban development not getting right focus of the government.
The planners said the proposed budget for 2010-2011 has failed to provide any directives on the planned development of small towns including 250 pourashavas although formulation of a master plan on pourashavas is underway.
The urban planners were sharing the budget observations at a press meet at the Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP) in Dhaka on Wednesday.
Presiding over the conference, BIP president Dr Sarwar Jahan said allowing unplanned urban development including that for the capital city is responsible for fast reduction of agricultural land, creation of urban-intensive labour employment, coupled with non-approval of urban policy after five years of its formulation, deterioration of the city's traffic gridlock and many other problems.
He said the BIP sat with the government's related agencies for giving freedom to the local authorities in urban management, but claimed that the proposed budget has failed to give any directives on this provision so that district and upazila-level budget allocation could be declared locally upon assessment of their needs for planned development of the localities concerned.
Urban planners have criticised the proposed budget for its inadequate focus on planned development of a large number of urban centres.
It is highly imperative to stop incidents like Nimtoli fire, Begunbari building collapse and Cox's Bazar landslide, they added.
They also said delay in approval of the much-talked about Detailed Area Plan (DAP) of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha is responsible for the planned urban development not getting right focus of the government.
The planners said the proposed budget for 2010-2011 has failed to provide any directives on the planned development of small towns including 250 pourashavas although formulation of a master plan on pourashavas is underway.
The urban planners were sharing the budget observations at a press meet at the Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP) in Dhaka on Wednesday.
Presiding over the conference, BIP president Dr Sarwar Jahan said allowing unplanned urban development including that for the capital city is responsible for fast reduction of agricultural land, creation of urban-intensive labour employment, coupled with non-approval of urban policy after five years of its formulation, deterioration of the city's traffic gridlock and many other problems.
He said the BIP sat with the government's related agencies for giving freedom to the local authorities in urban management, but claimed that the proposed budget has failed to give any directives on this provision so that district and upazila-level budget allocation could be declared locally upon assessment of their needs for planned development of the localities concerned.