Building an entirely new city might sound like an expensive idea, but it may very well save us more money in the long run
The prime minister recently expressed an interest in building a Hong Kong-like urban centre at Mawa point, near the still-under-construction Padma Bridge. This is a good idea, considering how much our capital city has become overburdened due to a lack of workable decentralisation efforts.
One of the key factors behind Dhaka’s current state of congestion is the massive influx of people migrating to it from all parts of the country. This is largely a result of the misguided notion that the capital is the only urban centre worth migrating to, despite the existence of large and functional metropolises such as Chittagong.
Many suggestions have been made as to how the state of the capital can be improved, without much real progress being made. Building an entirely new city might sound like an expensive idea, but it may very well save us more money in the long run, as investing in the capital has not been yielding the desired results in making it more liveable. A new city gives the government scope for a concrete plan which will take every facet of such an enormous undertaking into account, from feasibility to implementation.
There is only so much that can be done at this stage to improve Dhaka as our main urban hub. It would make more sense for the government to divert those financial resources towards building a new city some distance away from Dhaka, and make it attractive enough for people to seek work and living opportunities in, giving the capital city and its existing citizens some much-needed room to breathe.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
