Planning for Dhaka is indispensable

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The visions of the future about Dhaka and the higher status to be acquired by it among the world's urban concentrations, as one of the top ten cities of the world in terms of population size, should make the people of the country proud of their capital city. But this pride cannot be an unmixed one because in its present state and its continuing unplanned growth, there are valid fears that Dhaka in the future could be a megalopolis , no doubt, but a megalopolis full of slums or shanty-towns, short of infrastructures befitting its size and status and a maze of unplanned urbanisation with spill over adverse affects of the same on all sections of its population.
The time to start the putting of a hard brake on the unplanned growth of Dhaka was crossed long ago. What is imperative now is starting immediate damage control actions or completely curbing further unplanned sprawl of the city and bringing all parts of it under whatever reformatory activities that may be possible or viable.

Sumana Islam
Pallabi, Dhaka.