A. F. M. Asaduzzaman :
Public facilities are basic needs of city dwellers for healthy and smart living. They are also related to the infrastructure of real estate and its surroundings. To ensure healthy living, city dwellers need good drainage system as well as hydrology, water supply, waste management, sewerage and sanitation, energy, safety, education, and health service facilities in place. On the other hand, a city should have proper safety measures from disaster, bio-diversity and breathing space too. But as a capital, how many people in Dhaka have access to these facilities?
Though Dhaka is one of the most densely populated cities of the world and every year its population is increasing by 4.2%. According to the World Bank, many residents, including the 3.5 million slum dwellers, often lack access to basic services, infrastructure, and amenities. Traffic congestion in Dhaka eats up 3.2 million working hours per day.
If we consider the cities of developed countries, we’ll see that the authority focuses heavily on public facilities. For example, Singapore, which usually tops the rankings of smart cities, has smart mobility, infrastructure, elderly inclusion, security, and other convenient public services. On the other hand, the capital of South Korea, Seoul, is a typical example of a smart city taking climate change mitigation significantly as they are providing public facilities while still considering the environmental issue. 46% of their electricity comes from renewable energy.
In Bangladesh, except for a few exclusive areas like Gulshan, Banani, all the other areas consist of unplanned development, limited infrastructure maintenance, poor solid waste management, inadequate sewerage network in the core area, poor service from agencies, and inefficiency of government organisation. People of all areas suffer from traffic congestion and the hazard is increasing day by day. In Dhaka, most of the areas have narrow roads, lacks breathing space, no playground for children, and some area consists of very few spaces for children and social activities.
With a growing population, providing public facilities for all city dwellers is a challenge for the government. Despite many obstacles, the government is trying to increase public facilities by implementing various projects. Drainage Master Plan, Water Supply Master Plan and Sewerage Master Lane, National Water Management Plan are some of them. The leading public sector land development agency, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha-RAJUK have Uttara Apartment project, Jhilmil project, DAP project, Purbachal project, and Uttara project. These new township projects are providing a lot of public facilities than before. For example, 55% of the Uttara apartment project area is open, whereas 45% are the building coverage area. The project covers Block A, B & C of sector 18 of Uttara (3rd phase) and has a primary school, a high school, one mosque, one community center. It also includes playground and neighbourhood shops in every block. For beautification of the project, Sewerage Treatment Plant (STP) is provided in the underground of the area.
Private real estate companies are also trying to provide better public facilities in their new projects. Bashundhara, Uttara Residential Areas are just some examples. Nowadays, e-commerce property portals are also playing an important role in finding real estate with access to better public facilities. For example, the largest e-commerce real estate marketplace in Bangladesh, Bproperty, is providing an easy real estate solution through the use of technology.
(A. F. M. Asaduzzaman, Director, Public Affairs, Benchmarkpr)
