Why 'good' initiatives to make Dhaka citizen-friendly go in vain

Both of Dhaka's city corporations are planning to dedicate bicycle lanes on some roads under a World Bank-funded 'integrated corridor management' programme. 

A good initiative indeed. 

This compelled some to look back at what happened to some of the previous 'good initiative' projects taken up by the city corporations. 

Records point to an age-old pattern of failed attempts, and more importantly, failure to learn from errors, poor planning, improper implementation and lacklustre maintenance of  "good initiative" projects to improve Dhaka's infrastructure. A pattern that perhaps inspires frustration rather than hope. 

It is also common to blame citizens for negligence or carelessness in abiding by 'new' rules - such as riding on a dedicated bicycle lane or crossing a road using a push-button countdown traffic signal system at a zebra crossing. But some urban planners believe that it is unfair to pin the blame on the citizens for these failures. They say these initiatives and projects will not bear fruit if the target beneficiaries are not engaged through mass awareness campaigns.  

Of examples and patterns 

Three years ago, the country's first bicycle lane was inaugurated in Agargaon, Dhaka. And a second lane - with a green layer of cement and white cycle icon marks - was dedicated to bicycles on Manik Miah Avenue.

Both of the bicycle lanes were undermined as well as violated by car parkers and roadside vendors, leaving the initiatives futile. Despite protests by cyclist groups and citizen communities, the authorities failed to implement effective measures to counter the occupants (such as car parkers and vendors). 

Urban planner and architect Iqbal Habib said the bicycle lanes in Dhaka city did not help as those were not well-planned and [were not] connected to an integrated network. Despite the flaws, the authorities felt satisfied with the project without evaluating the pros and cons. 

"Cycle-lane is a part of a continuous corridor-based plan. Such a lane does not sustain if it is interrupted or marked on merely an individual road, pushing cyclists to danger," Iqbal warned. 

The budget for the bicycle lane initiative could not be estimated as it was a part of road development projects. 

In the same year (2019), inspired by developed countries, the city witnessed, for the first time, a push-button countdown traffic signalling system at a zebra crossing on the Mohammadpur Bus Stand-Asad Gate road. DNCC installed the system – allowing pedestrians to freely walk through the zebra crossing in around 30 seconds – at the cost of around TK6.5 lakh. 

A prototype was installed in front of Brac University the same year at the cost of Tk6.68 lakh. Although the two signalling systems started to show dismal performance, DNCC installed the third one, spending around Tk7.71 lakh in front of Mirpur Commerce College, in 2020.  

None of the systems seemed helpful neither to the pedestrians nor smooth traffic management. Despite this, the DNCC authority planned in 2020 to install 20 more such systems at the cost of Tk2 crore. However, Dhaka city dwellers are yet to see any new instalments. 

"The pedestrian density of Dhaka city does not support push-button traffic signals. The implementing authorities had ignored the local context," said Professor Adil Mohammed Khan of Jahangirnagar University's urban and regional planning department.  

In 2017, DNCC and DSCC began installing tactile tiles – a tile having a distinctive surface pattern of bars, cones or truncated domes detectable by foot or long cane – to facilitate the movement of visually impaired people. Different civic rights groups appreciated the initiative. 

In the last five years, almost half of the 217km footpaths in Dhaka South and 223km footpaths in Dhaka North were renovated with long stretches of tactile tiles.

During the same period, the pedestrians saw that the tiles were broken to make room for motorbike barriers or were removed for new development projects, completely interrupting the continuation of the tactile tiles. 

Professor Adil said, "This is evident that visually impaired people do not walk on the tactile tiles. Why should they? They don't walk only on the 'special' tiles [designated for them]. There should be a continuation of the tiles [in the city] to help them navigate through footpaths along the primary and secondary roads."

The eminent urban planner observed that the implementing authorities might see the initiative as good publicity, but the projects do not help the target beneficiaries.

The cost of the tiles installation project could not be determined as it was part of development projects, including reconstruction of the sewerage system, footpath and roads. 

The memory of the short-lived 'trash-bins' in regular intervals of footpaths still lingers on many Dhaka dwellers' minds. 

In 2016, to keep Dhaka clean, Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) started to install metal trash bins. For Tk5 crore, the two city corporations installed a total of 6,700 containers/bins around some of the densely and less-densely-populated areas in Dhaka. 

Within a few years, all the bins got vandalised, stolen or simply disappeared.  

Although the bins were meant for roadside litter, housekeepers often filled them with waste from household kitchens while the cleaners under the city corporations refused to empty the bins complaining that they would not be paid for this additional work. 

Sheer negligence led to the end of the trash bin project. Nobody was held accountable for this project's failure.  

Recalling the 'trash-bin' project, Iqbal Habib - who was also involved in the Hatirjheel development project - opined that the metal bins were prone to vandalism without engaging the neighbourhood people. 

"The bins initially installed along the Hatirjheel banks did not sustain. With the lesson, we re-designed the bins and now you can see the bins are vandalism-protective. The example should have been reflected in the city corporations' trash-bin project. But that didn't happen," he explained.  

On 1 October 2020, DNCC started removing overhead cables in the city's Gulshan area, terming the tangled wires as eyesores and a disturbing image of the city landscape. 

The city corporation authority, in several attempts, instructed the related parties to facilitate underground cabling but failed. Even on 25 January this year, DNCC Mayor Atiqul Islam ordered to remove of overhead wires from all localities under his jurisdiction by 30 June. More than three months have passed, and we are yet to see any change. 

Cable operators have said that they are afraid of delays in getting permission for road/footpath repair needed for stretching cables underground. 

Professor Adil termed the initiatives mentioned earlier, were all good ones. "But I doubt the initiatives were comprehensive, planned by efficient professionals and followed by proper piloting," he said, adding that the projects lacked community engagement.  

According to Professor Adil, developed countries scale up mainstreaming projects following the lessons from piloting. On the other hand, planning remains weak in most cases in our country. Only spending the project money gets priority. "Due to the undermining of the need for a neutral feasibility study, the projects ended up [as a] wastage of public money," Adil said. 

All this said and done, is the widely-accepted "brand" of being unruly citizens who cannot follow the rules justified? "Except for creating awareness among the citizens, maintaining quality installation and evaluating the comfortability of the users, there is no use in blaming the citizens," said Iqbal Habib. 

And lastly, can we expect different results from the city corporations' new plan to make dedicated bicycle lanes across the city? Only time will tell. But past records do not leave much room for hope unless drastic measures are taken to do things differently in order to implement this new good initiative.