Old Dhaka needs new urbanization plan

CHEMICAL warehouses in residential buildings, power cables and transformers dangerously set very close to houses and vulnerable gas supply lines — all are set to turn the overcrowded Old Dhaka into hell at any time. Casualties and losses might be multiplied in any fire incidence or earthquake due to narrow lanes, which are itself an obstacle to pass emergency vehicles. The heart of the city’s economy, the Old Dhaka has not been transformed along the utility facilities, or urban planning — wider roads and footpaths with public space. Instead, unplanned growth and expansion, overpopulation, risky business, chemical warehouses in residential buildings and vice versa decades after decades have increased the dangers in front of authorities.
The Chawkbazar tragedy that killed 67 people and burnt scores of people is nothing but predetermined accident after the Nimtoli fire accident of 2010 which killed 124 people as we did not learn anything from the tragedy. Audacious enough, the Chawkbazar fire took place only two days after Dhaka South City Corporation started renewing trade licences of chemical businesses after five years of suspension following the Nimtoli fire. After the Nimtoli fire, the probe committee had submitted a 17-point recommendation but none of them was implemented. The most important recommendation was the relocation of the chemical warehouses from the densely populated residential areas is still elusive. The committee also recommended awareness building against such risky chemical businesses in the residential area, reconstructing buildings as per the Building Code and taking actions against all such illegal businesses along the narrow lanes in the old city.
The member of the probe committee formed by DSCC after Chawkbazar fire said that 100 per cent houses in the area are used for both residential and commercial purposes. The old city is at high risk for both fire and earthquake as 60 per cent buildings house chemical warehouses. The old city should be reconstructed in the line of modern urban planning.