Study area

3.1 Study area

3.1.1 Location

Rajshahi is a divisional and the primate city in the northern region of the country. With
gradual increase in the importance of Rajshahi as an urban centre, many government
establishments and supporting land uses have developed in the city over the years. The
original Rajshahi town was on mouza Srirampur, a large part of which is now under the
river Padma. Rajshahi City was simply a district town prior to 1947 that had become a
divisional headquarters in 1947. Rajshahi town gained municipal status in 1876 during
British reign and finally achieved the status of City Corporation in 1987. Now it is the
4th largest metropolitan city in Bangladesh next to Dhaka, Chittagong and Khulna. Over
the years, it has grown as the administrative headquarters of the Rajshahi Division, and
lately flourished as a centre of learning.

The study area of the is located along the river Padma, between Latitude 24°- 18” N and
24°-28” N and Longitude 88°-28” E and 88° E (Figure- 1.1). Study area partially covers
Statistical Metropolitan Area (SMA) towards North-East, North-West and includes some
portion of charghat (22.14sq.km.) and Puthia (31.23sq.km.) Upazila towards East. Study
area occupies an area of about 322sq. km. including Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC)
(96.27sq. km.) and Cantonment (45sq. km.), Naohata Municipality (35.54sq. km.),
Katakhali Municipality (10.00sq. km.), rural RDA (48.85sq. km.) and vast rural area
outside RDA (121.69sq. km.).

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Map 3.1 Map of Rajshahi city

3.1.2 Physical Characteristics

The Bank of the Padma river from Gopalpur to Charghat (about 20 Km) is at an
elevated place. From the court point to Sahapur, it is further elevated and protected by
Rajshahi city flood protection embankment. The general ground elevation in this area
varies from 17.0 m to 18 m PWD (RDA master plan, 2005). But the embankment crest
height is around 21m PWD. The natural ground slope is from southwest to northeast
(from the Padma riverbank) in the western side of the city, but southeast to northwest
direction (due to the influence of the Baral river basin) at the eastern side, at Charghat

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area. At the north, the river Barnai is flowing from west to east and the natural slope is
from west to east along the river course. But the natural ground slope to the right bank
of Bamai and further south is from north to south. Study area landform has taken place
by sedimentation process of the Padma and Barnai rivers. The Sib-Bamai river course
may be considered as the major natural faults in the area, coming from the north
(Niarnatpur Upazila) to south and taken to the Naldanga Railway bridge in Natore.There
is a fault across Hoja Khal on the north-east of the study area. There are other minor
faults and lineaments in the area along the small rivers and khals. All these fall within
the rural-agricultural part of the study area.

3.1.3 Socio-economic Characteristics:

The population of Rajshahi City (RCC Area) is about 3.83 lakh (BBS, 2001). Of all the
districts of the region Rajshahi is the most urbanized, around 32 %( RDA master plan,
2005), and this is due to the location of Rajshahi SMA in the district. In fact as the
primate city of the region Rajshahi SMA accounts for around 50% of the total urban
population of the region and nearly 90% of the district urban population.

The study area comprises the existing Rajshahi city and its environs which is vastly
rural in character. The city built up area falls within the Rajshahi City Corporation
(RCC) area. Apart from these pockets of semi-urban settlements the entire area beyond
the city limit is rural/agricultural land comprising agricultural cropland, orchards,
homesteads and large number of waterbodies including rivers, khals, beels and ponds.
Economy of the study area is dominated by agriculture. However, in the urban part of
the study area service sector is the major source of employment. Rajshahi is famous for
its education and health facilities in the northern region. Major education facilities in the
city includes two universities, a few general colleges, one teachers training college, one
polytechnic Institute and one Medical College with a hospital. There are over 25000
students in Rajshahi University. About 19% occupation comes from small-scale
informal sector activities, while farm activities supply about 11% of the occupations
(RDA master plan, 2005).

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3.2 Current green space system analysis for Rajshahi city

3.2.1 Existing situation of the green space system

The built up area in RDA is 11510.39 acres (2003). Parks and play fields are vital
elements in urban life for passive and active recreation. But these facilities are
inadequate in Rajshahi City. The consultants have identified three parks in the study
area. Those are, Central Park (Shahid Kamruzzaman Park), RDA Park at Padma
Housing and Bhubon Mohan Park. Central Park (Shahid Kamruzzaman Park) having an
area of about 33.30 acres, located at Srirampur, is the largest park in the city. It has a zoo
as well but ill maintained. RDA Park having an area of about 18.00 acres is situated at
Padma Housing area. Due to its location the park does not have easy access to the
central city area people. Bhubon Mohan park is more popular as a meeting place for
political parties, rather than a park in its true sense.

The total areas of these public green spaces are 132 acres in the present city area. Public
green space per capita .41 acres Compared with the national greening indices that green
space per capita must be more than 1 acres(RDA master plan,2005) and public green
space per capita must be more than 1.5 acres, the current greening indices RDA are
obviously not enough. Khulna Master Plan of 2001 suggested a standard of 1.00
acre/thousand population. In Upazila Master Plan Project (1985-1991) the
recommended open space provision was 0.61 acre per 1000 population; in Dhaka
Metropolitan Development Plan (1995) the recommendation was minimum 1.00
acre/l000 population. Considering the availability of land, the current plan recommends
1.50 acres/1000 population as the open space standard for Rajshahi. Putting this
standard against the projected population for future Rajshahi city (proposed urban area)
there will be a need of 629 acres of additional open space in the year 2014(RDA master
plan, 2005). This will include park, playfield, botanical garden and recreational and
amusement areas. All the additional open space can not be provided under the current
plan. The additional open space remained will be provided during preparation of the
remaining detailed area plans for the Structure Plan/Functional Master Plan area. So it is
an important task for the government to improve these greening indices and then to
improve the environmental quality.

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Landuse Map of Rajshahi City

Map 3.2 Map of Existing Open spaces in Rajshahi city

3.2.2 Problems of existing green space system

1. Public green space and suburban forestry: (1) Public green spaces are not
distributed uniformly. Public green space per capita is .21 acres, but most public green
spaces are located in the west south. There are some green spaces in the urban centre
such as Central Park (Shahid Kamruzzaman Park), RDA Park at Padma Housing and
Bhubon Mohan Park. However, their areas are only 53.3 acres (RDA master plan,2005).
Greening rate is relatively low in contrast to the numerous populations in the urban
centre. The area of Central Park is 33.3 acres and it is more than 65% of the total parks
areas (RDA master plan, 2005). It is situated in the urban fringe; the area is large enough
but the using rate is very low. There is only one park of 2 acres in CBD area and even no
parks in north region. Middle-scale parks and small-scale parks are extremely not
enough in Rajshahi city, so it can’t satisfy the residents’ needs and play a good
ecological role.

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(2) It cannot form a uniform-distributed park system integrated with large-scale parks,
middle-scale parks, and small-scale parks. The ecological diversity is poor and it lacks
science and rationality to Distribute to the parks. The worst is that more and more parks
are continuously replaced by other commercial landuses.

2. Residential green space: In Rajshahi, one of the urban constructions emphasises is to

improve the environmental quality in the residential areas and the work units. However,
now it only focuses on the housing construction, regardless of the residential green
spaces. Particularly residential greening is the weakness in the urban centre. In the
residential districts, building density and floor area rate are high while the road is
narrow and there is a lack of green trees. The planning fieldwork has showed that there
are no formal parks in the residential districts except Padma residential area. So
greening rate of residential districts and work units is relatively low in the study area.
Moreover, the quality and management of residential green spaces are not very good.
Some high-class residential quarters can succeed in managing their green spaces, but
most residential quarters are the exception, which has results in the low environmental
quality and poor ecological benefits. The government doesn’t attach enough importance
to the balcony and roof greening. The problems existing in the green spaces of work
units are similar to that of residential districts. Namely greening rate is relatively low
and green spaces can’t play a good ecological role to the work units.

3.2.3 Desirable environmental quality in Rajshahi city

There are no national indices have been proposed to assess the environmental quality in
Bangladesh. (E.g. green space for a city must be more than 15-20% of total land of a
city). Actually these indices can be regarded as the basic requirements that the country
exerts on the cities. Different city has different urban property, geographic environment,
historic condition and economic development level. So it is impossible to apply the
same indices in each city. It is not difficult to realize these indices and even have
realized them in some cities. While in other cities, it is difficult to do that and cannot
realize these requirements. Therefore, every city should take the existing situation into
account to make some local-style greening indices.
Based on the urban planning context, the existing situation of green space system
greening indices, RDA has proposed the desirable environmental quality: Greening

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coverage rate in the planning area should be minimum 1.5 acres per thousand
populations until 2014. As such, the local government wants to import the forestry into
the city and make the city approach the nature. It will carry out the overall afforestation
in the planning areas to reduce the loss of water and soil. Taking advantage of the
favorable climate condition and the good soil condition, RDA tries to construct an
ecological city, realize sustainable development and create an optimal human settlement.

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