Anisul Islam Noor :The government plans to make the Tejgaon Industtrial Area simultaneously an industrial commercial and residential area under a master plan.The Public Works Department (PWD) has prepared the plan for the whole area to turn the area into an iconic zone as per the direction from high ups of the government, sources said.According to PWD, The Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (BFDC), Tejgaon CSD (Central Storage Depot) developed in the 1950s and illegal parking places for trucks will be removed from the 500.2 acre Tejgaon Industrial Area.In the master plan, PWD recommended business centres, corporate offices, convention centres, international hotels and apartments on privately owned industrial plots for commercial use. On September 8 last year, the Cabinet approved the proposal to turn Tejgaon industrial zone with its wide roads into an industrial, commercial and residential hub.A high-level committee led by the Housing and Public Works Minister would review the master plan before seeking approval of the Prime Minister, sources said. Housing and Public Works Minister Mosharraf Hossain engaged a committee of experts led by the PWD Chief Engineer to prepare a draft of the master plan. PWD Chief Engineer Kabir Ahmed told media, “We are giving final touches to the draft.” About the master plan, he said, “The draft includes updating of GIS map provided by RAJUK (Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha), verifying project potentials, preparing a database of private and public establishments in the area and so on.” “We are trying to make Tejgaon I.A. an iconic zone, larger than the capital’s Motijheel Area. Our main plan is to use every inch of the zone to turn it into a business hub that will have residential facilities also,” he said. According to PWD sources, there are some 430 plots and sub-plots in the existing Tejgaon Industrial Area.PWD recommended shifting the Food Department’s CSD, the BFDC and the truck stand to a convenient location and using a part of the freed area for multi purposes and selling the remaining plots so that the funds could be used for the rehabilitation of the government establishments. PWD Engineer SAM Fazlul Kabir, convener of a sub-committee for the draft, said, “Land office, Dhaka Polytechnic Institute, BG Press and other government establishments cannot be shifted.” “But the buildings will be beautified and high-rises will replace the existing residential buildings,” he added. As the plots of the area are larger than other parts of Dhaka, the master plan recommended for light industries to stay in the Tejgaon hub, SAM Fazlul Kabir also said. Every plot must have its own water, solar panel, rainwater storage, and sanitation plants, he added. Welcoming the master plan, Chairman of the Centre for Urban Studies Prof Nazrul Islam said, “Most of the large industries of Tejgaon are still one-storey buildings and it cannot be accepted.” The master plan should incorporate such things as people can be benefitted both socially and commercially, he added. “Some plots can be allotted to private universities struggling to establish their own campuses in Dhaka. A university campus requires minimum one acre of area and the planned Tejgaon can accommodate some of them,” Prof Nazrul said.
