VISIONS FOR DHAKA- ONGOING DEVELOPMENT AND

FUTURE PROPOSALS

GROUP 5

ID 201932008
ID 201932023
ID 201932015
ID 201932027
ID 201932030
Planning a more livable Dhaka
Dhaka is one of the world’s most populous megacities and a major contributor to Bangladesh’s
economic transformation. But like many cities its size, it faces growing challenges to its
economic competitiveness, overall livability, and social inclusion. Urban services and quality of
life measurements show that Dhaka has a lot to do to become more livable – and many
competing priorities to achieve that goal. For example:
● Poor solid waste management contributes to clogged drains and sewers, exacerbating
flood risk across the city.
● Affordable housing is far away from the places where jobs are concentrated.
● Commuting is hampered by a lack of public transportation and an inadequate road
network.
● Inflexible development regulations discourage the construction of low-cost housing closer
to jobs.
To resolve these and other problems, Dhaka needs to a new approach to planning and
investment. The city has more than 50 development or regulatory entities, each with its own
plan to shape the city’s future.
1. Transit-oriented development
Transit-oriented development combines public transit route planning with land use regulations
allowing for a greater zoning density and diversity of uses. The objective is to enable greater
housing supply, concentration of jobs, and easier mobility. Dhaka’s current and planned
investments in Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems total more than
$20 billion. There is tremendous opportunity to integrate transit-oriented development across
Dhaka’s urban fabric.

2. Nature-based solutions
Nature-based solutions for managing water can cost-effectively lower flooding risk. Dhaka’s flat
topography, proximity to rivers, and abundance of lakes and canals make the city especially
prone to the effects of flooding from rivers and waterlogging from accumulated rainfall.
Improvements in water-management systems and climate-adaptive investments can save tens of
billions of Taka in avoided damages from future floods. New approaches to water management
and flood risk reduction in Dhaka will be vitally important as the city expands eastward on the
flood plains along the Balu River. About 60 percent of the land there is at or below anticipated
flood levels, and new development encroaches on existing drainage canals and lakes.
3. Land pooling
Land pooling has been used in Thimphu, Bhutan and around the world as a tool to plan new
growth and promote urban regeneration. In Dhaka, the emergence of growth poles in the
northern and eastern areas of the city has increased the urgency for planned urban expansion
that provides basic infrastructure and regularized plots for development.

Through land pooling, land owners agree to give up a portion of their property to allow for the
placement of trunk infrastructure (roads, drainage, water and sewerage networks) and
community facilities. Landowners and implementing agencies together determine the location
and amount of land to be set aside for these amenities. A land pooling plan can incorporate
investment priorities from across sectors (sanitation, transport, housing, health and education).
Land contributions can be set aside for constructing affordable housing, mass transit stations,
green spaces, or any number of other uses.
Mega Projects
Drawbacks and Challenges
● There have been delays in completion for multiple megaprojects and deadlines have been
extended multiple times. Each of these delays and exceeding budgets are major problems
for the country and defeat the purpose of a megaproject in the first place.
● The red-tape culture has a debilitating effect on decision-making and implementation. Such
procedural delays make it harder to complete the megaprojects in time.
● Delay in some projects, especially the urban transport projects, are causing unexpected
disruption in daily lives for which the project cost and productivity both are increasing.
● Inefficiency in planning well ahead and lack of experience in dealing with such large scale
projects combined with lack of transparency and political pressure in selecting the
implementing agency are some of the reasons for which most of the megaprojects are
facing delays with massive increases in cost.
● Diversifying the fuel mix is a major challenge. Sole dependence on depleting natural gas
can exacerbate the gas famine situation in Bangladesh.
● The current global fuel market is volatile. The dependence of Bangladesh on imported
liquid fuel-based contingency plants has grown above 40% needs to change and
sustainable alternatives should be chosen
DHAKA EXPRESS HIGHWAY
Dhaka Elevated Expressway PPP Project

Dhaka Elevated Expressway is Bangladesh's first elevated expressway project,which will

connect the Shahjalal airport with kutub khali via mohakhali, Tejgaon and Kamalapur of
Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is one of the largest infrastructure projects taken up by the
incumbent government to ease traffic congestion in the capital.

1. Executing Agency: Bangladesh Bridge Authority

2. Concessionaire: The Italian-Thai Development Corporation Limited has entered a contract
with China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) for building this Dhaka Elevated
Expressway.
3. Contract Signing: 15 December, 2013
4. Route Alignment: Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport- Kuril- Banani- Mohakhali- Tejgaon-
Moghbazar- Kamlapur- Saidabad- Jatrabari- Dhaka Chittagong Highway (Kutub Khali)
Progress of Project

- The land acquisition for 1st tranche is completed; 2nd and 3rd tranche ongoing.
- Concessionaire has prepared the construction yard
- Preparatory works ongoing.
- Physical progress is about 7%.

DISADVANTAGES OF THE PROJECT

1. Impacts of haats and bazaars along the highways.

2. Buses stopping on the carriage-ways for dropping and picking
up passengers, blocking almost 60 % of the road
3. Trucks are stopping on the shoulder for loading and unloading
of goods
4. Rickshaws, cycle-vans, auto-rickshaws stand and park on the shoulder or very
near to the pavement
5. A large number of pedestrians moving on the road (irrespective of footpath)
without caring for the through traffic.
DHAKA METRO MASS RAPID TRANSIT SYSTEM
-The Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA) created a 20-year strategic transport
plan (STP) in 2005 to transform and develop a more integrated transit system for the
rapidly growing capital.

-The Dhaka Metro MRT system was conceived subsequently to provide more transport
options.
-The public transport system will aid in the economic and social development of the
greater Dhaka area, which is facing traffic congestion and pollution issues.

- A total of five lines, MRT Lines 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6, have been proposed for the project.
ONGOING CONSTRUCTION:
TEST RUN FROM DIYA BARI TO PALLABI:
World-class third terminal of Dhaka airport
The Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, Bangladesh, is being expanded in order to
address the continued increase in domestic and international passengers and cargo passing through
the facility.

Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport history and existing facilities

-Situated on an 802ha site in Kurmitola, north of the capital Dhaka, Hazrat Shahjalal
International Airport began operations in 1980.
-The airport has one domestic terminal and two international terminals with a maximum
capacity of eight million passengers a year.
-The existing terminals will not able to accommodate the growing number of passengers
due to capacity constraints.
•The terminal building will be 230,000 square meters. It will have a touch of advanced
architecture and will host all modern facilities inside.
•The terminal, designed by renowned architect Rohani Baharin, will match the world's most
modern airports.
Once the project is implemented, the main airport of the country will be able to provide service to over 20
million passengers every year, said CAAB.
AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR ALL
STRENGTH

-Very high demand for housing.

-Vibrant real estate market with existence of a large number of developers.

-Adequate supply of locally produced building materials.

WEAKNESS

-Scarcity of buildable land for affordable housing projects.

-Absence of initiatives for directing real-estate development

-Weak control over private developers engaged in land development and building
construction rules.

-Hassle and delay in approval of building plans by relevant authority.

- Failure to take up need based actions according to National Housing Policy to address
housing crisis of low and middle income population.

-Poor communication network to connect CBD.

NHA’s Low-Income Community Housing Project

NHA Housing Model National Housing Authority (NHA), with the World Bank’s support, is
undertaking a USD 50 million project to develop housing for the urban poor by 2021.
24,000 urban poor who live in informal and low-income settlements will directly benefit
from this project. Using a community-driven approach, the Project will help low-income
communities access infrastructure grants, and housing loans to improve housing and living
conditions.
Vasantek Rehabilitation Project

Here, community-managed savings groups (formed by CHDF) show great promise. In

Rajshahi, the CHDF helped 201 families benefit from housing support well after UPPR
ended in 2015. The community-based housing finance institution has distributed BDT 3.25
crore in housing loans. Moreover, when supported, poor communities are highly capable
of improving their own conditions.
Good Practices and Possibilities
In the past, the government had attempted to work together with private housing
developers to resettle the poor in Bhashantek, Mirpur, Dhaka. However, eventually the
poor could not afford to live in the apartments; Prof. Nazrul Islam of CUS calls this project
“a disaster” (personal interview, 2007; see Appendix 1). In the present resettlement
projects, it is perhaps the first time that the government is working in partnership with
NGOs in Dhaka for urban poor housing – the design and construction is to be done by the
PWD and the financial management by NGOs belonging to the CUP network.
Housing Need Estimation
TO ENSURE DEVELOPMENT OF HEALTHY AND LIVABLE
NEIGHBOURHOOD
DHAKA CITY DRAINAGE SYSTEM
- In order to evaluate and optimise the various alleviation schemes a pilot hydrodynamic
drainage model, has been made for a sub-catchment of the city.

-The MOUSE model has been selected for the modelling study. MOUSE computes water
levels and flow both for the drainage pipes for the streets.

-In order to evaluate the results in terms of street flooding for the various alleviation
schemes a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) has been established for the catchment area.

-The integration and application of the MOUSE model with ArcView GIS provides a
methodology for developing sustainable alleviation schemes.

-Such an integrated approach provide a very cost efficient system for planning and
management of the drainage system of Dhaka City in the future. The developed
technology can easily be transferred and applied to catchment areas experiencing similar
problems.
Figure: The methodology adopted for the present modelling study
Figure: Sketch of the connection between the streets and the pipe system for the Dhaka drainage system.

Figure: Illustration of the operational

strategy of the gates and pumps.
The conclusion of the study is that using the hydrodynamic MOUSE model together with
MOUSE GIS will provide a cost effective and informative methodology towards a finding
an optimum solution of the recurrent water logging in Dhaka City.
Energy
Waste to energy (WTE) has become a time befitted and efficient solution to address the
problems of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management and the ever growing need for energy.
The generation of MSW have been increasing at an alarming rate in Dhaka city with the
amplification of its population. A research evaluates and estimates the production of Biogas
from MSW through Anaerobic Digestion and proposes a methodology to generate electricity
from the biogas derived from MSW based on statistical informations obtained from various
sources like previously published researches, books and web data. The management of MSW
and energy production through a combined process has the potential to yield numerous
economic and environmental benefits and thus making it lucrative WTE opportunity.

Figure
WtE assessments in terms of electricity generation potential (actual and projected) for Dhaka and Chittagong city from year 2001 to year 2050. (a)
represents the projection using historical MSW generation rate and (b) represents the projection using CAGR approach. The legends of the figure are
given at the bottom of (a) and (b).
Figure
Energy potential and net GHG emissions of different WtE scenarios in Dhaka and Chittagong city,
Bangladesh.
 Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh

College Education Development Project (CEDP)

About the Project

Improving skills and productivity are crucial to Bangladesh’s quest to accelerate economic growth and become a
middle-income country.While there is an abundance of low-skilled workers, there is a strong demand for graduates with
higher cognitive and non-cognitive skills and job-specific technical skills.To meet the human development needs of the
country, the College Education Development Project (CEDP) was incepted in 2016. The CEDP aims to strengthen the
strategic planning and management capacity of the college education subsector and to improve the teaching and
learning environment of participating colleges.The Project specifically focuses on the tertiary college education sector
under the National University (NU) which accounts for nearly two-thirds of all tertiary students in around 2,200
government and nongovernment colleges in Bangladesh.
Vision
Overall socio-economic development of the country by improving quality and relevance of college
education commensurate with national and international demand.

Mission
Ensuring effective strategic planning, management and quality of college education subsector.

Project Activities
The focus of CEDP is to improve the capacity of the National University college system to plan, manage,
implement, and monitor its institutional programs and strengthen the foundation for the next phase of
development activities. The Project supports the development of a Strategic Plan for the College Subsector, to
provide directions and goals for the college education subsector and a consensus-based plan of action.

Expected outcomes
● A long-term Strategic Plan for the development of College Subsector at tertiary level
● Improvement of teaching and learning environment of around 122 government and
non-government Honours teaching colleges
● Attainment of academic excellence of colleges by providing need based higher professional
training for around 16,500 teachers, managers and future leaders
● Filling up around 2,700 vacant teaching posts in the government colleges
● Generation of employability and skilled human resources
 Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

Overview
Dhaka is emerging as a freelance IT and IT-enabled services outsourcing (ITES) center.
The ICT sector in Bangladesh is poised for continued expansion. According to the
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) the number of internet users nearly tripled
from 6.5 percent of the population in 2013 to 18.02 percent in 2017.

Bangladesh ranked 147 of 176 on the ITU’s ICT Development Index 2017, an occasional
report that captures the level of ICT development. The Bangladesh Telecommunication
Regulatory Commission (BTRC) puts total internet subscribers at 117.3 million as of May
2021, of which only 9.8 million use broadband connections while the rest are mobile
internet users.

According to the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS),

over 1,500 software and IT-related companies have registered in Bangladesh. The ICT
sector, excluding telecommunications, employs approximately one million professionals,
while ICT exports are estimated to be worth over $1 billion; North America is the main
destination.
Leading Sub-Sectors
ICT infrastructure and equipment, including telecommunications towers and related infrastructure; data centers
and related equipment and services.

Opportunities
Mobile applications; data and content development; online healthcare and government services solutions;
e-commerce applications and solutions.

Resources
● Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission
● Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services
● e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-Cab)
● Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Division
● Infrastructure Development and Engineering Services

Overview
Infrastructure bottlenecks are among the largest inhibitors of economic growth in Bangladesh. According to the
Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Bangladesh will need to invest nearly $25 billion annually through
2030 to meet its infrastructure needs.