DHAKA, 11 March 2007 — Bangladesh authorities have launched a massive demolition drive in Dhaka to ease the capital’s chronic traffic congestion, an official said yesterday.
Thousands of illegally constructed buildings in upmarket areas of the city are being reduced to rubble by bulldozers and hundreds of workers with pickaxes.
The drive began late last month but demolition crews had now moved into high gear, officials said. “Already we have demolished thousands of illegal structures. We will clear all the roads in the city in a bid to ease traffic congestion,” said the chief of the capital’s development authority, K.A.M. Harun.
“Any building which is constructed contravening our guidelines will also be demolished. We will not spare it, even if it is a 15- or 20-story building,” he said.
The demolition drive is one of a string of initiatives by the interim government to clean up the country’s corruption-beset political system in order to hold credible parliamentary elections.
Officials said buildings and land grabbed by owners for customer parking slowed traffic, greatly contributing to the city’s chronic traffic woes.
At peak times, the congestion frequently leads to complete gridlock, adding hours to commuters’ journey times.
Authorities previously turned a blind eye to many of the illegal structures because their owners paid bribes or were protected by influential political patrons.
“In some areas, we have allowed buildings only up to the sixth floor. But a lot of people breached that rule and built taller buildings and so we will demolish all of the unauthorized floors,” Harun added.
Dhaka, a city of at least 12 million people once known as the “garden city,” has seen a building boom in recent years. In 1971, its population was just one million. As part of its anti-corruption push, the military-backed caretaker government has arrested and detained dozens of prominent political and business figures on corruption charges as part of major anti-graft crackdown.
More have been told to submit details of their financial affairs for investigation, and the authorities have begun seizing the assets of those who have failed to comply.
The head of the interim government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, has said a date for fresh elections would be fixed once reforms aimed at reinforcing the country’s fragile democracy were implemented.
Polls scheduled for Jan. 22 were canceled by the head of the previous caretaker government, President Iajuddin Ahmed, when he stood down on Jan. 11 and imposed emergency rule.
The cancelation of the vote came amid opposition party accusations of poll rigging against the outgoing Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
