RAJUK decision will increase public suffering

Housing and commuting are of equal importance to Dhaka dwellers. And now, a move by the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) to simplify the building design approval process, stands to simply complicate matters further.

According to media reports, RAJUK had slackened the conditions of having to acquire approval of 16 agencies including the Dhaka City Corporation, for any building design.

“No clearance from the Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA) is required for the design,” an office order issued by the RAJUK on 28 March said. The same order said that the clearance issued by the road, transport and highways division, electricity distribution company, city corporation, gas distribution company, Bangladesh Police, the archaeology department, the Bangladesh Water Development Board, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), and Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) will not be acceptable for the design approval.

The decision is one-sided as well as contradictory to planned urbanisation. Urbanisation experts say it is essential to have the DTCA clearance on issues including parking lot of a building and traffic management in residential and other areas.

The housing minister said he had used his authority to reduce the number of offices from which clearance was to be taken. He said, “We’ve introduced a law that stipulates the design must be approved in 53 days, and clearance and mutation must be completed in 7 days.”

There is no dispute over the decision to reduce the duration of the process, but complications arise by excluding the utility services agencies’ approval. RAJUK cannot take a one-sided decision as a public utility service provider. It must take into account other services too.

According to the Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority Act, 2012, the DTCA is responsible for the approval and administration of the design related to the traffic circulation at under-construction buildings and around residential projects.

We, too, want the design approval procedure to be easy and fast, but why is it so difficult to get clearance from all the concerned organisations in 53 days in such an age of technology? RAJUK could rather limit the time for the concerned bodies. The dwellers will face several difficulties if the structures are constructed, but do not get approval from other utility services . They will not receive any gas, water or electricity services.

All the clearances should be received before the design is approved or else the owners of the building will face difficulty despite constructing buildings according to the RAJUK design. All the utility service providers in Dhaka should work together. The suffering of the people will intensify if any organisation takes decision on its own. The irresponsibility and negligence of various utility services have rendered Dhaka an unplanned city and this should not be allowed to continue.