Dhaka city infrastructure project fails to meet targets amid planning lapses and management failures
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A multi-million-dollar urban renewal initiative in Dhaka, aimed at transforming the city’s neighborhood infrastructure and public spaces, is facing significant scrutiny following years of delays, poor planning, and the eventual cancellation of its most ambitious components. The “Dhaka City Neighborhood Upgrading Project,” launched in March 2019 with financial support from the World Bank, was intended to improve living standards, public safety, and environmental accessibility across the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) area.
Despite an initial budget of 880 crore taka—later revised downward to 504 crore taka—the project has struggled to meet its objectives after seven years of implementation. Originally designed to deliver 20 parks, three playgrounds, extensive drainage improvements, and renovated public landmarks, the project has been marred by flawed design, inefficient management, and frequent changes in strategy. As of June 2024, only 353 crore taka had been spent, with a substantial 68 crore taka consumed by personnel costs, consultancy fees, and administrative overheads rather than physical development.
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Internal documents from the World Bank characterize the project’s progress as unsatisfactory, citing systemic weaknesses within the DSCC regarding procurement, project management, and quality control. By January 2024, nearly five years after approval, less than 20% of the loan funds had been disbursed. The situation reached a critical point when the World Bank declined to further extend the project timeline beyond May 2026, forcing authorities to abandon two major flagship tasks: the reconstruction of the Loharpul bridge in Kamrangirchar and the beautification of the Shahjahanpur lake. These two components alone were valued at 260 crore taka.
Current project officials maintain that approximately 83 percent of the project’s scope has been completed, with ongoing efforts to finalize community centers, playgrounds, and the restoration of the historic Lal Kuthi building. To cover the costs of these unfinished works following the expiration of the original funding window, the DSCC intends to redirect resources from a separate climate-resilient urban development initiative, the Resilient Urban and Territorial Development Project (RUTDP).
বিজ্ঞাপন
Urban planning experts warn that the project’s trajectory underscores a recurring pattern of mismanagement in public sector infrastructure. Critics argue that the project was launched without adequate technical feasibility studies, leading to a disconnect between the proposed designs and actual ground realities. The failure to complete the project as envisioned carries long-term consequences for the public, as the debt from the initial World Bank loan remains a state obligation, while the reliance on new funding to finish incomplete works risks duplicative expenditure.
Academic observers, including Professor Adil Muhammad Khan of Jahangirnagar University, note that without a mechanism to hold officials accountable for poor planning and administrative inefficiency, such failures are likely to persist. He emphasized that the wastage of public resources, coupled with the lack of consequences for those responsible for the project’s mismanagement, reflects a broader cultural failure in development governance that continues to impose unnecessary costs on the citizenry.
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