Many of Dhaka’s main roads were clogged up with traffic yesterday, as Victory Day celebrations were underway. This is a common occurrence on national holidays, and it is always the capital city that suffers the most in these cases.
The over-centralisation of public services, businesses, medical facilities, and educational facilities is one of the main culprits behind the traffic congestion and over-crowding of the capital.
Bangladesh is all-too dependent on Dhaka city, and most urban development initiatives seem to be focused on building on infrastructure in the capital. As a result, Dhaka is getting over-crowded to a degree that is not sustainable. It is of utmost importance that our policy-planners get out of a Dhaka-centric mentality and embrace decentralisation as a way to relieve the pressure on our capital.
There are many government bodies and institutions that do not necessarily need to take up space in Dhaka. For example, it would make sense for our Navy to move its headquarters to Chittagong, the port city. However, these arguments have, until now, been met with strong resistance.
The government could also direct universities to move their campuses into different districts. That way, our very large student population would not have to try to find a home in Dhaka, which currently has more universities than is reasonable for a single city.
The time to move out of our Dhaka-centric bias is long overdue. If we took the time to build infrastructure in other cities, and actually created attractive job opportunities, and educational and entertainment options there, we could save our capital from collapsing under the weight of a population it simply cannot sustain in the long run.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
government is too busy with their political parties and the well being of their adherents. They want to remain in power using all resources. They have very little time to think about people. All power rests with the Prime Minister. One person run the country. We are a bunch of idiots who just let them suck out blood. Bengalis are known to oblige to the powerful from the earliest time till to date. Don’t complain, just adjust and get raped. Navy will stay in Dhaka, Agricultural department will remain in Dhaka so will host of other organizations. We are used to getting raped and we should not make suggestions, promulgate free thinking as our PM will think for us. Give her a big thumbs up.
Spot on!
Whatever happened to this “birer jati” ?
Happy to be slaves ?