Cancelling the Detailed Area Plan (DAP) for Dhaka acceding to some vested quarters’ demands will be “suicidal”, as there is no alternative to formulating and implementing integrated plans to ensure a balanced, inclusive, and sustainable development of the city as well as the country, urban planners have said.
While the capital city ranks at the bottom of the livability index, vested quarters are demanding suspension of DAP which aims to improve its condition, the Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP), an organisation of city planners, said at a programme in the capital on Wednesday.
Amid the changed political situation, the BIP said, the Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB) and the Institute of Architects Bangladesh have termed DAP “discriminatory” as it was made during the previous government, and demanded its reformation.
Mentioning that a group of RAJUK (Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha) architects and engineers are also opposing the DAP, the BIP said it is necessary to look into the vested quarters’ motives behind their stance against the existing DAP.
BIP President Adil Mohammed Khan moderated the programme and presented the keynote paper.
He said in the case of DAP reevaluation, the protection of the environment, water bodies, reservoirs, and agricultural lands must be given the utmost importance.
However, the demand for cancelling the DAP indicates an ulterior motive of the vested quarters, and threatens to create a clear obstacle to a planned and sustainable development, he added.
BIP Joint Secretary Tamzidul Islam and Treasurer Musleh Uddin Hasan, urban planners Akter Mahmud, Fazle Reza Sumon, and Salma A Shafi, among others, also spoke at the event.