Akter Mahmud

An Assessment of Institutional Capacity of RAJUK in Development Control of Dhaka City

Abstract

RAJUK (the capital Development Authority), former DIT, has been established in 1956 and entrusted with giving the responsibilities of improving physical and urban condition of the Dhaka City. It is the supreme authority for 3 specific areas; preparing plan for Dhaka city, execution of plan and control its development within its jurisdiction. Presently, Dhaka became one of the fasted growing cities in the world and its population more than 12 millions. Around 350 thousands new people are adding to the existing city population in every year which creates huge pressure on traffic and transportation, housing, power, gas and other utility services. It became almost impossible to the city development agencies to deliver housing, transport and other services to the city dwellers accordingly. So that every year scenario of city’s built environment is getting worse than the previous year. RAJUK miserably failed in the plan execution especially control its development as per the plan and the norms and planning laws of the city. RAJUK provides ‘Planning Permission’ and ‘Land use Clearance’ to the private land owner to construct any structure on his/her land in the urban area in accordance to the compatibility of the master plan. It is the only technique to implement the master plan and maintain the desired land use of an urban area. But due to serious shortage of skilled manpower, corruption in the planning permission process, lack of visionaries and weak monitoring capacity of RAJUK Dhaka city grew haphazard way and turned into an unmanageable mega city. As a result, the living conditions have deteriorated very rapidly and the social as well as physical infrastructure are on the verge of collapse. This paper mainly focuses on the process of planning permission of RAJUK for a new building and evaluates its capacity of monitoring the development of Dhaka City. It also criticizes the shortcomings, bribing and malpractices in this process which resulted an unplanned city.

IntroductionIt is the responsibility of urban local government to prepare physical development plan of a city and develop and control its growth accordingly. Ratecliff (1993) explained that, for this purpose ‘certain planning standards are followed to control the physical setting of the urban area and to ensure safety, health, amenity welfare, convenience, efficiency and public interest.’ A system of development control introduced in UK under the provisions of the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act which required for the first time that all future building development and any material change in the use of the building would, henceforth, be subject to the need for planning permission from a local authority (Ratecliff, 1993). In Dhaka city a government nominated a special agency RAJUK (the Capital Development Authority) prepares city plan and sets the broad goals and objectives of the development plan. All the strategies of development plan are translated into specific land use and space requirements in such a way that it could ensures the optimum utilization of resources as various uses of land competes to each other.

RAJUK is the legitimate agency entrusted with the job of preparing plan for Dhaka city, ensuring development as per the prepared plan and controlling the future development. It exerts its power of development control as per the development plan through planning permission1 (Mahmud 2006). Planning Permission is consisting of 2 phase approval namely; land use clearance and building permission. ‘Land use clearance’ certificate is given after examining 1 It is the certification that proposed land use of a land is compatible with the development plan and its design followed the planning laws and standard of RAJUK.

1

the compatibility with master plan and ‘Building Permission’ is for proper designing a building as per the Building Construction Rules of RAJUK.

Presently, RAJUK exercise 5 legal instruments for the development control of Dhaka City’s land use. They are Town Improvement Act 1953, EBBC (East Bengal Building Construction) Act 1952, Private Residential Land Development Rules 2004, Wet Land Conservation Act 2002 and Development Metropolitan Development Plan (DMDP). Every construction/erection/excavation with in the jurisdiction of RAJUK requires permission/approval from the Authorized Officer or Building Construction Committee appointed under the provision of the Town Improvement Act, 1953. Any type of building construction, housing, commercial, industrial and whatsoever need planning permission and they must be in conformity with the land use provision of Master Plan/Urban Area Plan/Detailed Area Plans of different SPZ’s.

Mahmud (2006) thinks, due to RAJUK’s weak institutional capacity, development control of Dhaka City can be characterize in these ways; Firstly, whole the process of planning permission is criticized with lot of allegations like; unnecessary delay of file processing and harassment coupled with bribery and corruption. Secondly, overlooking or ignoring the provisions of planning laws intentionally from RAJUK and client both end. Third one is more technical that is in-competencies of RAJUK for skill man power and insufficient urban planners in the planning department. Fourthly, which happens in the implementation stage, is violation of plan by the people, construction without planning permission etc for the lack of effective monitoring by the RAJUK.

This paper will demonstrate the process of getting a planning approval, critically review the whole process, how it affects the development control and last not the list, how it helps to implement the plan of a city.

Objectives and MethodologyFollowing objectives were set to prepare the paper;

To review the development control mechanism of RAJUK To identify the reasons behind this process for being lengthy and

complicated To evaluate the institutional capacity and transparency of concern

departments of RAJUK To formulate a policy guideline to develop an easy and effective

mechanism plan-permission for building construction

Methodology of the study describes the research strategy adopted and step followed to achieve the objectives of the study as showed in the following.

i) Conceptualization: collected text and document related to development control, growth management and planning permission helped to develop theoretical background of the research.

ii) Secondary Information Collection: Ordinance, rules etc of government in physical planning were collected from RAJUK and other related organization and studied to know the functions, roles and responsibility of concern authority. An in-depth investigation into the recorded documents helped to understand the process of issuing land use clearance and building plan-permission and their nature.

Md. Akter Mahmud of 17

iii) Field Investigation and Justification: A sample survey was conducted in the year 2008 to know the implementation of ‘approved plan’ from RAJUK. Samples were rationally distributed in the different areas of the Dhaka City. Economic classes, income, planned areas and unplanned areas were considered during sample distribution. Field investigation was necessary for this research to know the types of violation of building rules, how they were deviated from the plan that issued from RAJUK and how they manage to do that. A comprehensive field investigation will help to identify and quantify the level of corruption done by the RAJUK and its officials.a. Multi-Sampling: Firstly whole city was divided into two major types

e.g.; planned and spontaneously developed area. Then few areas were selected from both categories as sample. 50 samples were randomly collected from 3 planned residential areas, Uttara, Gulshan and Banani, of Dhaka city. Other 125 samples were randomly collected the spontaneously developed areas like; Khilgaon, Taltala, Lalmatia, Shamoli, Mirpur, Kallanpur, Bangshal, Tantibazar and Mugdhapara etc. During sample collection and area selection socio-economic consideration was taken into account Sample distribution is shown in the following:

b. Information from RAJUK: the process of “land use clearance” and building permission process were reviewed. RAJUK officials and the applicants of building permission and the brokers were interviewed for preparing the paper.

iv) Interviews: Interviews were conducted with the researchers, experts and concern officials of RAJUK which will help to enrich the report.

v) Data Analysis: All the information collected from both primary and secondary sources were analyzed and explored for a suitable solution

Urbanization Pattern of Dhaka City

The creation of the independent state of Bangladesh in 1971, it gave Dhaka the glory and prestige of the capital of a sovereign country. This led to Dhaka's phenomenal growth. A recent study by World Bank has estimated that about 40% of the total population in Bangladesh will be living in urban area in Bangladesh by 2025 (ADB, 2000). Urban population density in Bangladesh was 2179 persons/sq.km in 1991 and the present density is estimated at approximately 3008 persons/sq.km. Population density of Dhaka mega city was found to be 4795 persons/sq.km in 1991 and the present density is estimated at approximately 8573 persons/sq.km. However, the population density of DCC area is more than three times of the megacity area, as in 1991 it was 15333 persons/sq.km against estimated present density of 18055 persons/sq.km (BBS, 2001). With limited availability of flood-free land, further densification of population along with haphazard encroachment of peripheral land of Dhaka as well as in urban areas of Bangladesh seems inevitable. Dhaka has the lion’s share of urban population. The following table shows the level of urbanization in Dhaka region.


Figure 1: Year Wise Population of Dhaka CityYear Wise Population of Dhaka

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005

Year

Po

pu

lati

on

(m

illio

n)

Population(Million)

Table 1: Total Population (in thousand) Residing in the Urban Areas of Bangladesh

Year Population of the

Country

Urban Populatio

n

Level of Urbanizatio

n

Dhaka CityPopulatio

nShare of Urban

Population (%)

1951 4,20,62 1819 4.33 411 22.591961 5,08,40 2640 5.19 718 27.201974 7,14,79 6273 8.78 2068 32.971981 8,71,20 13535 15.54 3440 25.421991 11,14,55 22455 20.15 6487 28.892001 12,38,51 28605 23.10 9912 34.65Source: BBS, 1991, 2001

Above table shows that the level of urbanization has increased in the course of time. Much of the urbanization has been concentrated in the Dhaka city, which is 34.65% of urban people live alone in the Dhaka city (BBS, 2001). Presently, around 120 million of people live in Dhaka city which has created tremendous pressure in the service delivery system of the city. Around 350 thousands new people is adding to the existing city people in every year which creates huge pressure on traffic and transportation, housing, power, gas etc. It became almost impossible to the city development agencies to deliver housing, transport and other services to the city dwellers accordingly. So that every year scenario of city’s built environment is getting worse than the previous year.

Data Source: Azam, 2006

Figure 1 shows the population has increased from 7.3 million in 1991 to 12.2 million in 2005. It is expected that the population of Dhaka city will be 13.6 million and 24.25 million by the year 2010 and 2025 respectively (Azam, 2006). The primary reason of this fast growing trend of urbanization of Dhaka are largely attributed to the establishment of capital city, locations of various government and non-government offices, industrial and commercial organizations, educational institution etc. (Jahan, et al, 2007).This rapid pace


of urbanization creates extreme pressure on basic utility services such as shelter, water, electricity etc. For instance, presently, the water demand of Dhaka is 210 crore litres per day and the supply is 170 to 180 crore litres per day. Thus Dhaka is facing shortage of water of 30 to 40 crore litres every day (Daily Prothom Alo, 2008,). Lion’s share of water supply of Dhaka (86.26%) comes from groundwater. Groundwater extraction puts heavy pressure on the city’s water table, especially when most of the city’s supply of water depends on what the tube wells extract from the ground. As a result ground water table lowering 2-3 meters every year which became an environmental threat for the city dwellers.

Planning Permission and Development Control Planning permission is the only technique to materialize the plan into reality, control the development into a desired form and implement the planning standards, planning rules and regulations. So far, municipalities and the development authorities exercised quite a few numbers of planning laws for land use and building construction as legislations in the urban areas of Bangladesh. These are: East Bengal Building Act 1952, the Paurashava Ordinance 1977, Building Construction Regulations 1984, Building Construction Act 1996 and recently approved Building Construction Act 2006. These legal instruments ought to be used sufficiently for controlled development of the towns and cities of Bangladesh. Though these legal instruments are not enough but unfortunately our city management authorities don’t practice much of these legal options we already have in our hand. The acts and the master plans of the cities are the principal legal instruments, which forces and exercises planning control and standards. The land use of metropolitan Dhaka ought to follow the provision of the City Master Plan. Housing, commercial and industrial project buildings need planning permission, which are generally practiced. It must be in conformity with the land use provision of the Master Plan. (Mahmud 2006)

Fig 2: Typical Development Control Process

Source: Developed by the Author

Planning standards are found in the various documents of government’s decision. For town planning practice, government has its legislative


Goals and objectives of development plan

Translation in to land use and space requirement

Follow the planning norms/ standards

Implementation of plan through project/ action plan/ planning permission

Guided by:Rules/ Planning LawsPlanning normsCircularGovernment orderGovernment decisionGazette notification

standards such as Building Control Regulations and Byelaws of the local government/ authority, decision of the board and circular of the government. For instance, development controlling agencies in Bangladesh has Building Construction Rules 1996, Mohanagar Imarat Nirman Bidhimala 2008, Bangladesh National Building Code etc for such planning standards and legislative measures. Sometimes planning standards and guidelines are also imposed from the recommendation or advice of the commissions, reports and committees or from the professional bodies. Besides, there are also empirical standards those devised from the research works and the working experiences in the planning field.

Processing of planning permission involves two stages: Land Use Clearance Building Permission

Land use ClearanceGenerally planned residential areas of RAJUK like; Gulshan, Banani, Uttara, Dhanmondi and other private housing areas that already have the approval of RAJUK for developing as residential area are not subject to take the ‘land use clearance’ from RAJUK. For other areas taking the land use clearance is must before submitting plans for construction. Generally land use clearances are of two types:

Type 1: General land use clearance Type 2: Land use clearance using TI act

Fig 3: A general Land use permission process

Source: Own Illustration

Type 1: Direct land use permission can be given if the proposed criteria of land use in certain area matches to the criteria and standards set by the


Collecting ‘Land use clearance form’ by depositing 400Tk in Bank

Submitting complete form with Mouza map showing the proposed map in the Planning Section

Assistant Town Planner (ATP) of Concern area

Surveyor will prepare a sketch with correct field information & sends it to ATP

Send it to draftsman for examining with the Master Plan and returns it to ATP with his report

ATP approves application and send it to Drafts man

Draftsman sign on application and send it to disperse Applicant collect it from disperse

Master plan for that area. Fig 3 shows the process how direct land use permission reached to an applicant after he submits his application a ‘general land use permission’ within the master plan area. As per the section 74 (1) of TI Act,

‘…………. it shall be unlawful for any person to use any land for any purposes other than laid down in the Master Plan, unless he has been permitted to do so under section 75, and

As per the Section 74(3) of the same Act,

‘All future developments and construction, both public and private, shall be conformity with the Master Plan or with the amendment thereof.’

Type 2: Second type of land use clearance is more complicated and time consuming which is shown in the fig. 4. However, for any kind of deviation or mismatch to the Master plan the application have to be proceeding through the TI Act 75(I)/(II).

-“ 75(1) If any person desires to use any land for any purpose other than that laid down in the [Master] Plan, he may apply in writing to the Chairman for permission so to do.”

- “75(2) If the Chairman refuses permission to any person, such person may, within sixty days of the Chairman’s refusal, appeal to the [Kartripakkha] against such refusal.”

Planning clearance or land use clearance is the step to check whether the proposed use of land confirm with the prepared plan by RAJUK. Ideally, this clearance assure planners that land will be used as per plan of the city. RAJUK control, all the development activities of Dhaka City under the provisions of Town Improvement Acts, Building Construction Rules and Land Use Regulations within the area under its jurisdiction. Any use of land or any type of construction needs approval or clearance from RAJUK and Authorized Sections are responsible for issuing those land use clearances.

Evaluation of Land Use Permission ProcessIn black and white, it should take more or less 3 weeks to get a land use order by a plot owner/ applicant. From the field survey it was found that plan permission process is so complex, lengthy and harassing that people rarely take the normal procedure of plan-permission rather they prefer to go through a deal with the illegal agents by giving them extra money. File processing does not processed without persuasion or deal with the RAJUK officials. RAJUK’s official website2 says, Land use clearances have found some or major deviations when constructing the buildings and seemed to be regular practice almost in every cases of approved plans. These happened due to non-applications of powers and lack in enforcement of building constructions rules and regulations. Field survey and interviews with planners suggest that negligence in duties, intention to forgo some specific cases, poor inspection and reporting and political influence made Authorized Section a fearsome part of the organization. In case of some critical issues,

2 http://www.rajukdhaka.gov.bd/new/about_rajuk/major_activities.htm Date of visit: May 02, 2009


http://www.rajukdhaka.gov.bd/new/planning/index.htm

clients or developers some how manage the authority for land use clearances for particular areas where development is restricted for specific purpose. Peoples claimed that the files/plans are not approved properly and sites are not inspected as per given parameters. The unnecessary harassment or time killing or missing of specific files or put objections on files are most common practice dealing the Authorized Sections. The overall performance of this section is not up to the mark as mentioned by the clients.


Fig 4: Land Use Clearance Process Using TI Act

Source: Own Illustration

Building approvalBuilding approval is the step where applicant applies by fulfilling the requirements like detail plans, sections, elevation etc of the proposed building as per the Building construction rules. The following documents are required to authorize a design.

1. Deed 2. Duplicate Carbon Receipt (DCR) 3. Land Rent receipt 4. Mutation 5. Draft Publication From 6. 7 copies of the plan (for building up to 6 storied)


Collecting ‘Land use clearance form’ by depositing 400 Tk in Bank

Submitting complete form with Mouza map showing the proposed map in the Planning Section

Assistant Town Planner (ATP) of concerned area

Surveyor will prepare a sketch with correct field information & send it to ATP

Send it to draftsman for examining with the Master Plan and send back it to ATP with his report

ATP sign and TA act committee on application and send it to Member Planning through deputy secretary

Draftsman

Applicant collects it from dispatch

Member planning approves the application

Chairman for his signature

Assistant Town Planner (ATP) of Concern area Draftsman

Applicant applies again for land use clearance certificate under TI Act by depositing 1000 TK.

If the building has more than 6 floors, a structural design is required along with the prior clearance certificates from the 7 organizations as mentioned in the previous section. For applying a building permission of residential building/residential cum commercial building more than 6 storey heights RAJUK demands prior clearance certificates from the following organizations:

o Directorate of Environmento Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (DESA)o Water and Sewerage Supply Authority (WASA)o TITAS Gaso Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Traffic o Dhaka City Corporation (DCC)o Civil Aviation Authority Bangladesh (CAAB)

RAJUK has a Development Control Section (Authorized Section). Previously this section was comprised with two Authorized Officers, two Assistant Authorized Officers, four Chief Building Inspectors, 50 Building Inspectors and other staff. Now the number of Authorized Section has been increased to four (4) instead of two (2) by increasing the staff members and demarking the areas specified under control of each authorized jurisdiction. These sections are supported by the four Building Construction (BC) Committees headed by the Members (Planning and Development) for approval of the building plans and exercising the powers of the Act for planned growth of the city.

Law of approving a rejected plan If a plan is rejected the plot owner can make an appeal in the appealed division of the BC committee. This committee examines the plan again. If they find it is satisfactory, the BC committee can approve it. However, they can even reject it.

Evaluation of Building Approval ProcessAfter a series of checks and clarifications the application is referred to the Building Construction Committee for approval or rejection. It is done by the Authorized Section of RAJUK. The Authorized section is bound to give the clearance within 3 weeks. However, it varies with the frequency of their meeting. RAJUK admitted in their official webpage that in some cases the process of plan or building construction approval or clearance delayed due to some undefined circumstances and caused peoples to take alternative solutions. Misuse of power as claimed by the clients; causes unnecessary harassment and delay. The provisions of Act clearly defined that the plans should be forwarded for clearance or approval within 45 days and if, any objection made in the plan must be notified within 30 days after submission for approval. In fact the process sometimes take more time as specified in the Act and in many cases it takes years to get the approval. Without pursuing the file/case file does not go forward. As a result, to avoid the harassment, unnecessary delay, bypassing the planning laws, bypassing the shortcomings of the plot; people tend to take some other means for plan permission. RAJUK’s Authorized Sections are carrying out and dealing the process of development control and responsible for issuing land use clearance or approval for building plans under the provision of TI Act.


Table 2: Reasons for taking the assistance of agents

Sl No

Reasons Percentage

1 To avoid unnecessary delay 53%2 To avoid harassment 22%3 Don’t have to spent for running after it 7%4 To avoid the complex process of plan

approval13%

5 Others 5%Total 100%

Source: Field survey 2008

From the field survey and interview with the client (land owners) and agents, it was found that 5 basic reasons are responsible for corruption in the planning permission process of RAJUK. They are:

o to avoid the harassmento complex process of planning permissiono unnecessary delayo bypassing the planning lawso bypassing the shortcomings of the plot owner

Law for a building constructed without prior permission

If any plot owner built his building without the due approval of RAJUK there is a provision of regularizing the plan and the building with penalties. There is a law enacted since 1987. Under this law it is stated that if a building is constructed without RAJUK’s approval but following all the regulations and set backs of RAJUK then it is possible to provide permission. But the owner will have to pay a 10 times increased fees along with a minimum Tk. 5,000 fine (it can be more).

Monitoring and Action against Unauthorized Building

The building inspectors of RAJUK are responsible to monitor the building, their construction, their condition and continuous monitoring of all the buildings within the RAJUK jurisdiction area. If they find any kind of deviation or, if any neighbor complains against his neighbor regarding illegal construction, building inspectors prepares a notice to the violators. This notice is a 2C type notice and asks to show the authorization documents of the deviators within certain time period. Such notice is send 3 times. If the owner fails to show the required documents in time RAJUK is empowered to demolish his structure.

Deviation in Residential BuildingSevere problems of plan violation has been found in the construction phase of residential building in Dhaka city. Land owner take the ‘building approval’ from RAJUK by submitting as per the requirements of the BC Rules 1996. But they start to deviate from the approved plan from RAJUK while constructing the building. Condition would not be so acute if plot owners have complied


the plan and rules they promised in the approved plan. BC Rules 1996 provided rules for construction of a residential building on the issues like width of adjacent road and distance of building from it, distance of building from the electric line, land use policy of proposed building, boundary walls, height of the building, parking facilities, use of basement and conditions to fulfill, light and air circulation, roof and sunshade, emergency entrance and others facilities, special rules for residential building (setback rules), garage and rules for high-rise buildings. Among them most serious violations were found in the deviation of following provisions;

a. Maintaining distance of building from adjacent roadb. Maintaining height of buildingc. Maintaining setback rules of building

Fig 4: Land use clearance certificate

Fig 5: Lay out map of applicant’s plot

Explanations of above figures

Fig 4: RAJUK approved the land use clearance with conditions. In ground, for the lack of monitoring, land owner does not fulfill the condition as he promised to do.

Fig 5: Space should be kept for Road extension. Plot owner promised to RAJUK on a deed to keep 2 ft X 36 ft on the north side of the plot for a 20 ft road and 2 ft X 59 ft land on the east side of the plot for a 12 ft road. In reality plot owner do not keep space for road extension and violates the conditions so set on the deed. Building Inspectors are bribed if they come to visit the site during or post construction period. In the above case, roads are still less than 16 ft and 8 ft respectively.


Fig 6: A narrow alley of Dhaka City

Fig 7: Ground Floor Used for Shops instead of Parking

Explanations of above figures Fig 6: A narrow alley near Sonargaon Road. To get any planning permission it is a mandatory requirement that adjacent road-width would be minimum 3.5 meter and in case of private road it may be 3.0 meter. In the picture this road width is only 2 meter.

Fig 7: Parking space in a shopping complex. In the above photo, shopping complex buildings don’t have any parking space which is obligatory and promised to keep in the approved plan from RAJUK. Ground floor is used for shop instead of parking.

Performance EvaluationViolation may occur in different ways in different respects. If a building plan does not comply with the rules and regulations of the concerned authority as stated it is called violation of rules. The building owners may cause violation the building designers and the erector can also violate rules. Violations are if, building construction does not follow construction rules of the local authority or does not follow Building By-laws or follow setback rules. Sometimes owners follow the building construction rules partially and sometimes they violate rules completes. In the present study building construction rule violation has been classified into two broader classes like Partial Violation and Full Violation. These are described as follows:

- Total Violation: Most of the old buildings have same problem of constructing buildings without due permission causing total violation. This kind of buildings also does not follow the building construction rules as stated in the books published by the Government.

- Partial Violation: This kind of violation is intensively occurring by the building owners. After taking the plan permission almost 95% building owners in Dhaka city are someway violating the ‘Building Construction Rules 1996’. Types of violations are:

i. Constructing floors more than it was permittedii. Construct buildings covering open spaces as shown in the

approved planiii. Internal rearrangement of approved design without

permissioniv. Increase floor space from the first floor and above by

extending cantileverv. Change its floor use without permission

From the survey it was found that more than 90% of the buildings were constructed violating the rules of BC Rules 1996 irrespective of planned and spontaneously developed areas of Dhaka city.


Table 3: Setback rules violation and deviation from the plan

Sl No

Thana Locations of Buildings

Violation of RulesBuildin

g Height

Road encroachment

Setback

Rules1 Khilgaon Khilgaon & Taltola 48% 84% 100%2 Mohammad-

purLalmatia & Samoli 60% 88% 96%

3 Mirpur Mirpur & Kollanpur

68% 92% 100%

4 Kotowali Bangsal & Tantibazar

68% 96% 100%

5 Sabujbag Mugdapara 78% 96% 100%6 Ramna Kalabagan &

Kathalbagan78% 96% 100%

7 Badda Nikunja - 2 52% 92% 100%8 Gulshan Gulshan & Banani 16% 44% 88%9 Uttara Uttara 24% 56% 96%

Source: Field Survey 2008

From the result of survey it was found that even in the Uttara Model Town 86.66% Markets and the Commercial buildings don’t have the parking space as specified in their approved plan from RAJUK. Most of the markets are using their basement for renting shops. So that users of that commercial buildings and markets park their cars on street and occupying road, reducing carriageway of road and resulting traffic jam. Question is ‘did the town planners/building inspectors of RAJUK notice it?’

The Mohanagar Imarat Nirman Bidhimala (Building Construction Rules 2008)The Building Construction Rule (BCR)-2008 was framed through an intensive 3-years effort of professional bodies, experts and civil society members in consultation with Government, after examination of building control tools in various countries, and with specific consideration of land supply, population density and resource constraints of Bangladesh.

Provisions of Building Constructions The Mohanagar BCR 2008 was formulated considering the various aspects of urban area. Provisions were formulated considering the type of building use, road width, concentration of vehicular movement, population density, parking demand, utility services and fire annihilation. There are also other rules which are needed to follow in building construction such as, plot consolidation, building height, parking provision, footpath, and basement. Some very significant steps were taken in the Mohanagar BCR 2008:

Introduction of FAR which eliminates the building height limit but permits total floor space as per the plot and its adjacent situation.

Obligation of professionals like; Urban Planner, Architects, Structural Engineer, Mechanical Engineer, Electrical Engineer, Geo-technical Engineer, Site supervisor, Plumbing Engineer will definitely encourage professionalism.


‘One Window Service Cell3’ will ensure smoother approval of building permission through one window service, within a fixed time, through the consent of the stakeholders which would be a transparent mechanism to approve the plans, thus eliminating harassment and abuse of power by authority,

Introduction of ‘Urban Development Committee4’ will ensure the planned development of the city.

BCR 2008 in Development ControlThe Mohanagar Building Construction Rule (BCR)-2008 replaces the constraints of the previous rules, which encouraged its evasion and abuse, and brings significant incentives and benefits to all. Provisions of mandatory open space (or, maximum land utilization 50 to 65% of total plot area), setback, ground coverage, Floor Area Ratio (FAR) etc can provide significant social and environmental benefits to the residents.

By analyzing the BCR 2008 it was found that, Supervision and monitoring of RAJUK in different phase of the construction and introduction of occupancy certificate will ensure the quality of building and prevent the plan violation.

From the findings of this paper it was found that more than 90% buildings of Dhaka city violated the rules of BCR 1996 where there was a mandatory limitation of buildings height. But in the BCR 2008, FAR was introduced and mandatory height limit is eliminated. It would be great challenge if RAJUK fail to monitor strictly the building construction gross density would increase which is against the spirit of planning and BCR 2008

Recommendations

Legal and Technical Matters RAJUK has sufficient legal supports with act and by-laws. Planning

standards and planning laws should be enforced and practiced properly.

RAJUK’s planning permission process should be more simple and transparent. Adequate database, cross checking of data, frequent field supervision, provision of accountability, provision of strong penalty in case of default etc. should be regularized and compulsory. RAJUK never used the digital data of Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan. Instead of manual and traditional ‘planning permission’ process RAJUK should use that data base for planning permission. It will definitely improve the present situation. Obviously for that RAJUK need skill and more town planners in its organogram.

Institutional Arrangement RAJUK is a town planning institution and its 3 basic tasks are;

Planning, Development and Control. Organogram of RAJUK should be reviewed and duties and responsibilities should be reexamined. Right people with right qualification should work in the appropriate positions. Planners should be appointed in the key positions of town planning and development control. RAJUK, for instance, Member

3 A committee for considering the ‘development permit’ (it is necessary for the big projects and tall buildings) of the applicants which is composed of members from professional institutes like; BIP, IEB, REHAB, Stake holders like; DCC, UDD, WASA, DESA, DITS, T&T, Fire Service, DoE, Police, Civil aviation, KPIDC, TITAS, Law ministry, Private organization working on handicap. D

4 Composite of Government nominated Officials, President/ Vice-president/ General Secretary of professional bodies, representatives from civil society, University professor, etc


(Planning), Director Town Planning, Director Plan Preparation, and Director Development Control etc.

Institutional Strengthening RAJUK should recruit enough planning professionals in its regular set-

up for increasing its institutional capacity. Comparing the other cities of the world and the Bangladesh context at least one Urban Planner should work for serving 1 lac population of Dhaka City. For the efficient management and development control, it is necessary to develop a strong GIS data base of each parcel of land, its land use, use of each floor of a building, number of people accommodating that building etc. Therefore, information will be on the hand of Urban Planner and he will exercise the Rules of the State as required.

To provide planning service to the 12 million population of Dhaka at least 120 Urban Planner should work in the whole RAJUK area. So that they can look after the plan and manage the growth of the city. Ward Commissioners in the DCC area, chairmen of concern pourashava and the Union Chairmen in the RAJUK area should be co-opt in the development control process.

Concluding RemarksPlanning permission process ought to be more simple and transparent. Planning department in RAJUK should adopt new technical support for planning permission and development control instead of present manual system. A complete GIS database with ‘plot to plot’ record of whole RAJUK area can help a great deal in this regard. This database will contain the information of master plan so that any applicant can know the use of his plot proposed in the master plan which will not take more than few minutes. It can substitute the present lengthy process of land clearance system and this service can be provided from just one desk. Hopefully, newly introduced Building Construction Rules 2008 will bring a better result if it is implemented properly. Previously RAJUK failed to implement the Building Construction Rules 1996 which was easier and straight forward rules to execute. It would be very unrealistic and optimistic to implement BCR 2008 without the rearrangement of institutional capacity of RAJUK which was the major constraint of successful implementation of BCR 1996. Without removing that constraint it would be a great challenge to implement BCR 2008.

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