Toward Great Dhaka : A New Urban Development Paradigm Eastward

A unique strategic opportunity beckons Bangladesh. Dhaka, the economic powerhouse of the country, stands on the cusp of a dramatic transformation that could make it much more prosperous and livable. Today, Dhaka is prone to flooding, congestion, and messiness, to a point that is clogging its growth....

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Main Authors: Bird, Julia, Li, Yue, Rahman, Hossain Zillur, Rama, Martin, Venables, Anthony J.
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Washington, DC: World Bank 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29925
id okr-10986-29925
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-299252021-04-23T14:04:55Z Toward Great Dhaka : A New Urban Development Paradigm Eastward Bird, Julia Li, Yue Rahman, Hossain Zillur Rama, Martin Venables, Anthony J. URBANIZATION URBAN CONGESTION URBAN TRANSPORT CITY DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY URBAN HOUSING FLOOD RISK MODELING DEMOGRAPHICS URBAN PLANNING A unique strategic opportunity beckons Bangladesh. Dhaka, the economic powerhouse of the country, stands on the cusp of a dramatic transformation that could make it much more prosperous and livable. Today, Dhaka is prone to flooding, congestion, and messiness, to a point that is clogging its growth. But toward its east, where two major highway corridors will one day intersect, is a vast expanse of largely rural land. And much of it is within 6 kilometers of the most valuable parts of the city. The time to make the most of this eastward opportunity is now. Many parts of East Dhaka are already being developed in a haphazard way at an alarmingly rapid pace. Private developers are buying land and filling it with sand so they can build and sell new houses and apartments. Canals and ponds are disappearing, and the few narrow roads crossing the area are being encroached by construction. This spontaneous development could soon make East Dhaka look like the messy western part of the city, and retrofitting it later will be more difficult and costlier than properly planning and developing it now. Toward Great Dhaka: A New Urban Development Paradigm Eastward seeks to analyze how the opportunity of East Dhaka could be realized. Using state-of-the-art modeling techniques, the study simulates population, housing, economic activity, and commuting times across the 266 unions that constitute Greater Dhaka. It does so under various scenarios for the development of East Dhaka, but always assessing the implications for the entire city. The simulations suggest that pursuing a strategic approach to the development of East Dhaka would make Greater Dhaka a much more productive and livable city than continuing with business as usual. Based on current trends, Greater Dhaka would have a population of 25 million in 2035 and an income per capita of US$8,000 at 2015 prices. However, embracing a strategic approach would add 5 million people to the city. And, it would be a more productive city, with nearly 1.8 million more jobs and an income per capita of more than US$9,200 at 2015 prices, enough to put Dhaka on the map of global cities. 2018-06-26T19:18:48Z 2018-06-26T19:18:48Z 2018-07-03 Book 978-1-4648-1238-5 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29925 English Directions in Development; CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank Washington, DC: World Bank Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Publication South Asia Bangladesh
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic URBANIZATION
URBAN CONGESTION
URBAN TRANSPORT
CITY DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
URBAN HOUSING
FLOOD RISK
MODELING
DEMOGRAPHICS
URBAN PLANNING
spellingShingle URBANIZATION
URBAN CONGESTION
URBAN TRANSPORT
CITY DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
URBAN HOUSING
FLOOD RISK
MODELING
DEMOGRAPHICS
URBAN PLANNING
Bird, Julia
Li, Yue
Rahman, Hossain Zillur
Rama, Martin
Venables, Anthony J.
Toward Great Dhaka : A New Urban Development Paradigm Eastward
geographic_facet South Asia
Bangladesh
relation Directions in Development;
description A unique strategic opportunity beckons Bangladesh. Dhaka, the economic powerhouse of the country, stands on the cusp of a dramatic transformation that could make it much more prosperous and livable. Today, Dhaka is prone to flooding, congestion, and messiness, to a point that is clogging its growth. But toward its east, where two major highway corridors will one day intersect, is a vast expanse of largely rural land. And much of it is within 6 kilometers of the most valuable parts of the city. The time to make the most of this eastward opportunity is now. Many parts of East Dhaka are already being developed in a haphazard way at an alarmingly rapid pace. Private developers are buying land and filling it with sand so they can build and sell new houses and apartments. Canals and ponds are disappearing, and the few narrow roads crossing the area are being encroached by construction. This spontaneous development could soon make East Dhaka look like the messy western part of the city, and retrofitting it later will be more difficult and costlier than properly planning and developing it now. Toward Great Dhaka: A New Urban Development Paradigm Eastward seeks to analyze how the opportunity of East Dhaka could be realized. Using state-of-the-art modeling techniques, the study simulates population, housing, economic activity, and commuting times across the 266 unions that constitute Greater Dhaka. It does so under various scenarios for the development of East Dhaka, but always assessing the implications for the entire city. The simulations suggest that pursuing a strategic approach to the development of East Dhaka would make Greater Dhaka a much more productive and livable city than continuing with business as usual. Based on current trends, Greater Dhaka would have a population of 25 million in 2035 and an income per capita of US$8,000 at 2015 prices. However, embracing a strategic approach would add 5 million people to the city. And, it would be a more productive city, with nearly 1.8 million more jobs and an income per capita of more than US$9,200 at 2015 prices, enough to put Dhaka on the map of global cities.
format Book
author Bird, Julia
Li, Yue
Rahman, Hossain Zillur
Rama, Martin
Venables, Anthony J.
author_facet Bird, Julia
Li, Yue
Rahman, Hossain Zillur
Rama, Martin
Venables, Anthony J.
author_sort Bird, Julia
title Toward Great Dhaka : A New Urban Development Paradigm Eastward
title_short Toward Great Dhaka : A New Urban Development Paradigm Eastward
title_full Toward Great Dhaka : A New Urban Development Paradigm Eastward
title_fullStr Toward Great Dhaka : A New Urban Development Paradigm Eastward
title_full_unstemmed Toward Great Dhaka : A New Urban Development Paradigm Eastward
title_sort toward great dhaka : a new urban development paradigm eastward
publisher Washington, DC: World Bank
publishDate 2018
url http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29925
_version_ 1764470823971717120