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Need for Planned City : Future
Scenario - Open Spaces
Recreation facilities and open space, accessible to the general
public, provide an integral and necessary part of urban living,
particularly in areas of high density. Facilities can be categorized
under the headings of passive and active recreation, where the
former are characteristically parks and gardens, and the latter,
facilities catering to a variety of sports, recreation and cultural
activities.
At the city or metropolitan scale, which is the
level of interest of the DMDP Structure Plan, Dhaka has a fair
representation of both, though arguably not enough, however enough
may be defined. Comparison with other world cities, of different
cultures and different climates, can be a useless exercise since
measures expressed as standards of provision (per thousand of
population), are of little or no value.
What the city of Dhaka does share with other
world cities however, is that much of its open space, in the form of
large parks and gardens, has been inherited from a by-gone, more
leisured age when population pressures were modest and, most
importantly, land costs a tiny fraction of what they are today. How
else would Dhaka have its Ramna Park; London its Hyde Park and
Regents Park, and New York its Central Park.
Dhaka's interlinked central parks (Ramna, Shishu
and Suhararwardi), and the nearby National Stadium complex, become
increasingly precious legacies with each passing year. Sadly, with
Dhaka's rapidly growing population, unless they can be replicated,
their value will be diminished by over-utilization and these
valuable assets permanently impoverished.
Whilst the provision of local open space can be
absorbed into the development costs of the formal public and private
sector, or otherwise donated by the community itself, no such
options exist at the City scale, especially in locations where the
need is greatest.
As the proportion of disposable income spent on
leisure rises, so will the private sector's participation in
satisfying that demand. For the period of the DMDP Structure Plan to
2015, however, such a trend is unlikely to develop fast enough to
shift the bulk of the burden from Government.
POLICY SE/10 - AUGMENTING CITY OPEN SPACE
The MPA will seek to augment the City's existing
stock of major recreational facilities by means of exploiting the
resource of vacant and! or under-utilized Government land within the
established urban area.
REASON
To prevent further impoverishment of the City's
supply of such facilities, and its environment in general. by
increasing public access to publicly-owned Government land and
minimise costs of land acquisition.
MEANS OF IMPLEMENTATION
Promotion
a. Converting the under-utilized old Airport site
(south of a line linking Agargaon Road to Shaheed Jahangir Gate on
Airport Road) to Dhaka's Central Park of the twenty-first century.
The central location of this area, relative to the future and
already-emerging pattern of urbanization, coupled with its high
accessibility make it the ideal site for a new National Sporting
complex. Such a complex would be capable of hosting, in one
location, such regional and international events as the South Asian
Association of Regional Confederation (SAARC) and Commonwealth
Games.
b. Securing access for the public to some of the
City's vastly under-utilized Government and institutional land
holdings, for passive recreational use, on the successful model of
Zia Gardens.
Implementing Agency
MPA/RAJUK in liaison with the Dhaka Cantonment
Board, Civil Aviation Authority, DCC and the Lands Department.
With the increasing shift in population growth slowly moving from
the established urban areas to the proposed growth areas in the
second half of the DMDP Structure Plan period, advantage needs to be
taken of this short period of grace to plan and secure, for these
areas, reserves of land for major recreational facilities. Alone, a
fully-developed DND Triangle, by the year 2015 could be the
equivalent, in terms of population, to present-day Khulna, the
nation's third largest city. The open space needed to serve this
population, and other growth areas, needs to be secured or reserved
at the outset of the DMDP Structure Plan, certainly no later than
the end of 2000. Areas which could satisfy part of the open space
and leisure and amenity requirements are the existing natural
depressions associated with Dhaka's waterways and Khals. Some of
these areas will in part be required for retention ponds. and as
such need to be protected from the outset.
POLICY SE/11- SECURING FUTURE OPEN SPACE
It is the MPA's intention to identify and secure
sites for major recreational use in the DMDP Structure Plan's all
priority new development areas, but especially the DND Triangle and
Harirampur (north of Mirpur).
REASON
These two areas. following the medium term
infrastructure-led development initiatives will be the fastest
growing flood-protected areas in the second half of the DMDP
Structure Plan period. By 2015, these areas should both be well
established extensions to the existing, urban area with populations
meriting their own high order social facilities and open space.
MEANS OF IMPLEMENTATION
Promotion
Long term forward planning, before urbanization
and land prices escalate, will be needed if all the necessary large
sites are to be secured. Similar problems will face Government as
those associated with securing the land necessary for flood
retention ponds (refer: Chapter 4, Policy RS/5). It is recommended
therefore that these two issues be linked and that studies be
initiated to assess the feasibility of combining the two
recreational areas with those of the related retention ponds. Such
studies would include:
i) assessing the feasibility of combining the
flood retention function of the ponds with that of a recreational
use;
ii) assessing the additional dry land area
requirement and the feasibility based on engineering and geological
investigation and cost of utilising fill, dredged from the pond
areas, to raise the level of the landside areas above the level of
seasonal inundation;
ii) recommending the control measures and levels
of compensation necessary to reserve the sites for their eventual
proposed use.
Implementing Agency
MPAI RAJUK in liaison with BWDB, and where
appropriate, the Parjatan Corporation and Directorate of Youth and
Sports.
Controls
Measures similar to those recommended for
retention ponds would be suitable only for the interim period, prior
to the conversion of the retention pond and associated land areas to
their permanent recreational use. At this stage. compensation for
the loss of the use-rights permitted during the interim period would
have to be made to the affected owners.
Implementing Agency:
MPA/ RAJUK
Beyond the urban areas proposed in the DMDP
Structure Plan, the MPA will encourage the continuation of the
practice of establishing picnic areas at accessible rural locations
within the metropolitan area. These should be located in those areas
designated as rural in the DMDP Structure Plan, Rural and Special
Areas Policies Map. The MP A will also support the Forestry
Department, in the establishment of the proposed Bhawal National
Park. Though beyond the RAJUK administrative boundary (north of
Gazipur), the Bhawal National Park will be a valuable addition to
the recreational facilities available to the population of
Metropolitan Dhaka.
Figure: Recreation/Open
Space Policy by DMDP, RAJUK
Source: DMDP, RAJUK. |
