Experts urge government to shift capital away from Dhaka.

[Homo Sapiens]

Urbanization and transport expert urges govt. to relocate capital away from Dhaka. They says, it is already late and there is no alternative to shift the capital away from Dhaka if we want to make Dhaka sustainable in a long term. But LGRD minister said, there is no planning currently for such a shift. Got. is looking for decentralization to reduce the pressure on Dhaka.

 

[bd_4_ever]

Here, I do agree with the government for a change.

Moving capitals can be a long-term, costly process. Instead of getting into that sort of commitment, I personally think decentralization is the way forward. We only need to remove 2 things from Dhaka - the garments factories and the banks. These two entities employ a major proportion of the Dhaka population. Taking these out to the periphery will reduce at least 25%-30% of the congestion.

Secondly, the use of metro and the new bus lines should be encouraged. Although, these projects are ongoing, I personally foresee the problem to be lack of incentivization. The people who will ride the metro/bus will likely be the ones who don't have cars. The ones who do own one, I doubt they would use public transport. So the government need to introduce mobility programs. For instance, all the government employees using the metro/bus to travel to office will have their monthly metro/bus card fully paid for. Conversely, any employee who use car to travel to office will have to pay a carbon/traffic tax of Tk 2000 etc.

I think unless you throw in money somewhere in the equation, Bangladeshis will hardly pay heed to it. Incentives as such have worked before such as when the government declared house taxes will be lower if you do gardening on the roof. Now, every building have plants on its roof.

Thirdly, encourage other methods of transport - mainly, water-boats and cycling. Create more cycling lanes and extend the water-boats routes around the Dhaka city and where possible, within the city. Provide incentives for it. Encourage the healthy lifestyle. What we need to do is appeal to the emotional and healthy aspect of the population and telling them why it is beneficial to do this. Just increasing car taxes wont cut it as Bangladeshis literally don't give a f*ck. Everyone now-a-days have money.

 

[bluesky]

Urbanization and transport expert urges govt. to relocate capital away from Dhaka. They says, it is already late and there is no alternative to shift the capital away from Dhaka if we want to make Dhaka sustainable in a long term. But LGRD minister said, there is no planning currently for such a shift. Got. is looking for decentralization to reduce the pressure on Dhaka.

ঢেকি স্বর্গে গেলেও ধান ভানে। Wherever experts want to move the Capital, the New Dhaka will become as dirty as today's Dhaka within five years time. It is the outlook and nature of our people that will cause degradation of the proposed New Dhaka very fast. I do not think our peasant culture will die away anytime soon. We adore a primitive style of dirty living.

 

[Imran Khan]

they already have one here
Coordinates:

28°36′50″N 77°12′32″E

 

[UKBengali]

Here, I do agree with the government for a change.

Moving capitals can be a long-term, costly process. Instead of getting into that sort of commitment, I personally think decentralization is the way forward. We only need to remove 2 things from Dhaka - the garments factories and the banks. These two entities employ a major proportion of the Dhaka population. Taking these out to the periphery will reduce at least 25%-30% of the congestion.

Secondly, the use of metro and the new bus lines should be encouraged. Although, these projects are ongoing, I personally foresee the problem to be lack of incentivization. The people who will ride the metro/bus will likely be the ones who don't have cars. The ones who do own one, I doubt they would use public transport. So the government need to introduce mobility programs. For instance, all the government employees using the metro/bus to travel to office will have their monthly metro/bus card fully paid for. Conversely, any employee who use car to travel to office will have to pay a carbon/traffic tax of Tk 2000 etc.

I think unless you throw in money somewhere in the equation, Bangladeshis will hardly pay heed to it. Incentives as such have worked before such as when the government declared house taxes will be lower if you do gardening on the roof. Now, every building have plants on its roof.

Thirdly, encourage other methods of transport - mainly, water-boats and cycling. Create more cycling lanes and extend the water-boats routes around the Dhaka city and where possible, within the city. Provide incentives for it. Encourage the healthy lifestyle. What we need to do is appeal to the emotional and healthy aspect of the population and telling them why it is beneficial to do this. Just increasing car taxes wont cut it as Bangladeshis literally don't give a f*ck. Everyone now-a-days have money.

Dhaka RSTP and the ongoing infrastructure works around the country will help reduce congestion in Dhaka a little.
One example is the bypass roads currently being built and that will take out some traffic that needs to travel through Dhaka.
I disagree that those that own cars will not use Metro Rail without any incentives. Would you rather use Metro for 15 min journey into work or to visit some place or spend 1.5 hours stuck in traffic jams?
SEZs that are mainly being built outside Dhaka will have a massive impact on stopping the relentless flow of migration into Dhaka.

 

[bd_4_ever]

Dhaka RSTP and the ongoing infrastructure works around the country will help reduce congestion in Dhaka a little.
One example is the bypass roads currently being built and that will take out some traffic that needs to travel through Dhaka.
I disagree that those that own cars will not use Metro Rail without any incentives. Would you rather use Metro for 15 min journey into work or to visit some place or spend 1.5 hours stuck in traffic jams?
SEZs that are mainly being built outside Dhaka will have a massive impact on stopping the relentless flow of migration into Dhaka.

I know what you are saying. However, old habits die hard and people might still use the excuse of security and what not. The changes can be done but the authorities have to put an effort behind this. The personal frustration on traffic jams might come into play but we need to nurture it with other valid advantages of using the public transport.