The government project to give facelift to four cities of the country at a total cost of Tk 33,970 million is, evidently, encouraging. The project was approved Tuesday by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC). Aimed at making the four cities better for living, the project is set to receive Tk 22,150 million in loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The rest of the cost will be met by the government. A unique project involving four urban and nearly-urbanised centres of the country, the plan has picked up Gazipur, Narayanganj and Cumilla city corporations and Cox's Bazar. It's the four cities' increase in civic amenities, skill development of the city administrations and improvement in the cities' living standards which will receive focus of the multi-faceted project. With the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) of the Local Government Division assigned to the task of the project's execution, as reported, the urban development-specific programme will have to accomplish a number of goals. They include structural development of sewerage system and waste management, honing governance skills etc. The deadline set for completing the tasks is 2026.
According to experts, directing focus on a number of cities at a time to ensure their all-round development is quite pragmatic. Due to the rush of work undertaken in several places at a time, the implementing authorities might expect cuts in expenditure at different levels
As the project has been titled 'Urban Development and City Governance, it can be presumed it has been given a great responsibility for bringing about desirable changes in the four cities. It has a lot more things to do other than increasing civic amenities and improving standards of city life. The premier job awaiting it is making the local government authorities realise the need for autonomous 'city administrations' in the four designated cities. But the country's critically important district towns continue facing myriad problems. The problems are different and vary from one to another. In many cases, they could be unique to a certain district town --- or its cityscape and communication network. Compared to the projected mission of the all-round development of the four cities, the work list may seem trivial to many. The tasks of setting up of street lights, three bus terminals, playgrounds, waste disposal units, sewerage management are, in fact, the routine jobs of city corporations and municipalities. However, the construction of a flyover and two overpasses adds to the significance of the urban project. But to the city development experts, the construction of five bridges, box culverts, pipe-culverts doesn't.
Solving the Gazipur city's terrible traffic jam warrants the creation of a separate project altogether. The urban woes of the Cumilla town are nowhere near it. When it comes to illegal hill-levelling and deforestation in Cox's Bazar sea resort, building of multi-storey hotels on its seafront, the big-budget project appears lacking in right focuses. So does the Narayanganj city, increasingly being burdened by population density. However, the main project is expected to be scrutinised afresh for inclusion of the sectors overlooked now. In that phase, widening the project's grasp and its management ought to be emphasised.
