Staff Correspondent:

A total of 3,382 under-construction buildings in the capital have been identified for violating regulations recently, Chairman of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) Engineer Riazul Islam said on Sunday.

“If necessary, these buildings will either be demolished or corrected,” he said while speaking as the chief guest at a city dialogue titled “Dhaka: A City of Problems, Which Way to the Solution?”

The Urban Development Journalists Forum-Bangladesh (UDJF) organised the programme at the Shafiqul Kabir Auditorium of the Dhaka Reporters Unity today with its President Matin Abdullah in the chair.

“I want to make Dhaka a liveable city. I cannot destroy it — my goal is to improve its condition with what we have,” he added.

The keynote paper at the event was presented by Sheikh Mohammad Mehedi Ahsan, general secretary of the Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP).

Urban planners Mohammad Fazle Reza Suman and Nurul Islam; Rajuk Chief Engineer Nurul Islam; former chief engineer of Dhaka South City Corporation Md Nurullah; and environmental expert Prof Dr Mohammad Kamaruzzaman also took part in the discussion.

Fazle Reza said that bureaucratic complexities and the arbitrariness of professionals are two of the main drivers behind the capital’s worsening urban condition.

Meanwhile, Prof Kamaruzzaman highlighted the severe shortfall of greenery and wetlands in Dhaka, noting that the city has only one-third of the required coverage.

“Dhaka was planned for five to six million people. It now houses nearly 25 to 30 million. No expert in the world can solve this city’s problems unless decentralisation takes place.