The government has unveiled a move to involve two city corporations of Dhaka in approving building construction plans as if the hassles that Rajuk and relevant other organisations offer to their service seekers are not enough. The decision, which has stirred up genuine concern among both landowners and realtors, has come all of a sudden. Reason/s for taking such a decision is not clear until now. Grabbing canals and other public facilities to construct buildings and other infrastructures could be one reason. But the decision will add to the woes of anyone wanting to build structures in Dhaka city.
For decades, there has been no respite from the hassles involved in the approval of building plans. It begins with Rajdhani Unnyan Kartipakkha (Rajuk) and later gets transferred to others, including utility service providers. The situation is not anyway different in other cities and towns of the country. It is none, but the sufferers know how troublesome is the job of getting a construction plan approved in Dhaka or any other major city. One has to spend time and money beyond the legal ones to get his/her plan approved. And this is no secret.
If the plan is to build a structure in Mahammadpur or Mirpur Housing areas of Dhaka, the hassles are even more. The owner of the plan would have to negotiate many tables in offices of the executive engineers and National Housing Authority (NHA).
Many fear that the sufferings of home builders would only increase manifold because of the latest move. Such apprehension is not at all unfounded. The Rajuk, being a specialised entity for city development and approving plans, has an expert workforce and technology in the relevant fields. Yet people have a lot to complain about its service delivery. The city corporations will be new in the job and they do not have the required expertise, personnel and dedicated sections to deal with building plans. Until equipped with those, service-seekers stand to suffer.
The government is pledge-bound to reduce the number of steps to help improve its position concerning the ease of doing business. But the addition of a new entity in the building plan approval process is not in sync with that pledge. In many countries, local government bodies remain involved in approving building structures. But one has to admit that the situation in Bangladesh is altogether different.
The performance of the city corporations is also not beyond question. Miscreants have grabbed city canals mainly because of DWASA's inaction. But scores of illegal structures have been built on the roads and pavements across the city over the years, as corporation officials remained onlookers. Only in recent times, there have been some moves to dismantle a few of those. But such demolition involves cost, and taxpayers bear that burden.
As far as the involvement of city corporations in the plan approval process is concerned, the government should reconsider its move. If the government is determined to pursue, it should first equip the city corporations well with necessary logistics and workforce and then ask people to submit their plans for vetting.