History of Urban Planning in Bangladesh

1. DR. AKHTER HUSAIN CHAUDHURY

2. During 1950s a town planning cell of the
than ‘Construction and Building Depart
ment-C&B’ (later splited to PWD,RHD) of
the Ministry of Public Works used to do the
functions of Town Planning.
Its major contributions include,
Azimpur and Motijheel Govt.Colony
Tejgaon Industrial Area and
Motijheel Commercial Area

3. Dhaka Improvement Trust (Present RAJUK), 1956
Housing and Settlement Directorate (HSD) 1958
Chittagong Development Authority 1959
Khulna Development Authority 1961
Urban Development Directorate (UDD) in 1965.
Rajshahi Town Development Authority (RTDA) 1976
National Housing Authority (NHA) 2000

4. Micro Level Planning During Colonial Period
Housing Area Development at
WARI, Dhaka

5. Early Pakistan Period Initiative
A committee was formed in early 50s headed by the then
minister Hamidul Haque Chowdhury to prepare a development
plan for Dhaka city.
The committee, with the assistance of the then Building and
Construction (C & B) Department, prepared a few micro-level
area plans for residential, commercial and industrial
development of the than Dhaka city during early fifties.
Based on these plans Azimpur Government Housing Estate,
Motijheel Government Houisng Estate, part of Motijheel
Commercial Area and Tejgaon Industrial Area were developed.

6. Other Local Level Community Initiatives
Segunbagicha Housing Area
 Street Patter n Connecting every plot
 Service latrine path
 Fairly regular road pattern
Kalabagan Lake Circus and Natun Paltan Line
 The land owner community together worked out area road pattern only.
Lalmatia Residential Area
 Formed community association
 Approached public works ministry to make a plan
 UDD in collaboration with the local association devised a comprehensive
housing area plan with street pattern, space for school, play field, mosque
,association office, etc.

7. Beginning of City Level Planning
 City level urban planning in Bangladesh began in late fifties.
 Provincial Government apprehending large scale urban growth in spontaneous pattern caused by in-
migration from India, decided to go for master plan of three major cities - Dhaka, Chittagong and Khulna
to ensure planned spatial development.
 With the technical assistance under Colombo Plan, a consortium of British consulting firms was engaged
for this purpose.
 From 1959 to 1961, master plans for Dhaka, Chittagong and Khulna were prepared.
 The plans were prototype and followed the post World War II British master plan style.
 The entire city was divided into a number of land use zones and connected by road network and other
line services.
 Infrastructure of various categories were proposed and spaces were reserved for such facilities as, road,
site for public buildings, sewerage treatment plant, water treatment plant, fire station, recreational open
space, etc.
• The land use zones were, housing, open space, commercial, industrial and education. The land use
zoning plan served as the zoning regulatory measure.
 The plan also made recommendations about development in above sectors.

9. Dacca Master Plan 1959: Structure and Contents
The plan was prepared in map form showing proposed land use and infrastructure development.
An explanatory report was created to describe the plan contents more elaborately.
Two categories of plans were submitted-one for the entire DIT (the previous name of RAJUK) area with a scale of 1:20,000.
The second plan was for the core Dhaka and its adjoining areas with a scale of 1:3960. The second plan was prepared
extracting the area of core Dhaka and its adjoining areas from the first plan. The motive behind the second plan was to depict
the fast expanding high density core Dhaka more vividly.
The master plan report contents can broadly be classified into two-development proposals and implementation measures.
Development proposals were set under nine sectors-
1. Transport and Communication
2. Public Building
3. Population
4. Housing
5. Education
6. Open Space
7. Commercial and Shopping
8. Industry
8. Utility Services
Following master plan proposals, necessary administrative, institutional and legal measures were suggested for
implementation of the master plan.
Apart from Dhaka, a separate master plan was prepared for Narayanganj, which was industrially and commercially one of the
most thriving towns of that period.

10. Urban Development Directorate Planning
Initiative
After inception UDD prepared large number
of layout plans for housing estates and
upashahars at district level for HSD.
It provided planning services to the then
Housing and Settlement Directorate (now
National Housing Authority) which
implemented all those plans.

11. RTDA’s First Planning Endeavour
After its inception in 1976, RTDA made its the first
attempt of city planning in 1984, in collaboration with
UDD and technical assistance by UNV.
A rudimentary draft city plan was prepared in 1984,
but it was never finalised. However, RTDA followed
land use zoning of the draft plan for many years to
offer planning permission to prospective developers.

12. UDD’s New Drive for Urban Planning
During early eighties a radical change was made by the government in the national administrative set up by converting the
mahakumas into 64 districts and upgrading thanas as upazilas with local government status.
Since
To make the upazila shahar as the focal point of regional development , UDD Since 1983 UDD prepared 392 master/land
use plans for ziland upazila shahars.
But these plans remained virtually as paper plans as no attempt was made by the government to execute them.
UDD still continuing its drive for planning, but in the same old style. Neither does it has capacity to implement the plans nor
does it make any arrangement for implementation by other agencies.
Local Government Engineering Department (LGED)
Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) is primarily responsible for rural infrastructure development. Later on it
was also charged with the responsibilities of infrastructure development in urban local government areas. It undertook
planning of many municipal towns left out by UDD. But the initial efforts were not very successful. From mid 2000 a new drive
is on by LGED to prepare master plans for pourashavas under UGIIP (urban governance) projects.

13. New Style of Planning
The early city plans followed the post World War II British master plan style.
These plans were rigid and did not consider the socio-economic issues of urbanisation in depth.
The Town and Country Planning Act 1968 of Britain introduced a new planning style called
Development Plan with new form, content and procedure.
It created a two tier hierarchical planning system comprising structure plan and subsequent local
plan, together forming the development plan.
Structure plan being a broader and more flexible of plan at strategic level, while local plan to be
more certain, pertinent and detailed at local level. Such a system was also promoted by UN
Habitat during 1980s.
In 1991 with UNDP assistance, RAJUK and CDA together launched a new urban planning project
for their respective cities where the above system of planning was adopted with slightly modified
form.
For Dhaka a two tier planning system-Structure Plan and Detailed Area Plan- was proposed. As
the project ended abruptly without preparing the detailed area plan, the consultant prepared what
is called the urban area plan suggesting interim planning measures for the main city area. The
measures were to be followed till preparation of the detailed area plan.

14. After that, all other cities and towns started to follow the above
planning system in a little modified form.
The new urban planning system adopted by other cities and
towns of Bangladesh was a three tier hierarchical system-
Structure Plan, Master Plan and Detailed Area Plan.
In the new system, keeping the British style structure plan
intact in form, the local level plan was renamed as detailed
area plan. Apart from that, the earlier master plan/land use
plan with its old style and form was inserted as a second
hierarchy in between structure plan and detailed area plan.

15. Structure Plan, Master Plan and Detailed Area Plan BY RAJUK and CDA
In 1991 RAJUK and CDA together with UNDP technical assistance launched a new
planning project to replace their old and the expired master plans.
The project aimed to prepared structure plan and detailed area plan. But the project
could not proceed beyond 1995 for dearth of finding by UNDP. The project had to be
shut down without preparing the detailed area plan, the most important component of
the planning hierarchy.
Detailed Area Plan BY RAJUK and CDA
In 2004 RAJUK and CDA undertook projects to prepare detailed area plans for its
entire area under DMDP, to be completed within two years. However, after long delay
the project has been completed in 2009. CDA also completed its detailed area plans
in the same year.

17. Structure Plan, Master Plan and
Detailed Area Plan By KDA
In 1997 Khulna Development Authority (KDA), to replace its old and expired master plan,
launched a new planning project called Structure Plan, Master Plan and Detailed Area
Plan for Khulna City.
The planning project had three components- structure plan. master plan and detailed area
plan. The project prepared the structure plan and master plan in totality, but detailed area
plans were prepared in three samples. Three sample detailed area plans were prepared to
replicate them for other areas later on.
RTDA’s New Style Planning
RTDA (RDA) in early 2000 undertook Structure Plan, Master Plan and Detailed Area
Plan for Khulna City in line with KDA. It, however, due to ToR bindings, prepared detailed
area plans for its entire area. The project was completed in 2004.

19. Ongoing Planning Project
Detailed Area Plan by KDA
In 2010 KDA launched a DAP project,
which is expected to be completed in
2013.
The plan covers about 181.59 sq.km
(44,872.70 acres) acres of earlier master
plan area.

20. Pourashava Planning by LGED
LGED undertook two town planning
projects in 2007.
 UTDP : 221 Upazila Shahar Planning
DTIDP: 25 Zila Towns Planning
Work of all the Planning Activities Going on

21. From 2012 RAJUK has been implementing a new planning project to
prepare a new Structure Plan to replace the Structure Plan prepared
in 1996. The project titled,
REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLANNING
is funded by Asian Development Bank
The project scheduled to be completed by 2014