Planning Stakeholders’ Perception of the Implementation of Urban Conservation Areas of Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan

Abstract

Preserving conservation areas is one of the major challenges for urban planning 
policymakers around the globe. The study was conducted to undertake the perception of 
the planning stakeholders regarding the conservation areas and their suggestions on how 
to implement them. The Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan (DMDP) is the prevailing 
master plan comprising of Dhaka Structure Plan, Urban Area Plan, and Detailed Area 
Plan. The term conservation area was not directly identified as a land use category but it 
was identified as the restricted areas such as open space, flood flow zone, urban 
agriculture zone, water body and retention areas, overlay zones, and non-confirming 
zones which were regarded mostly for conservation purpose. In a densely populated city 
with higher land scarcity, it is hard to impose restricted land as a land use category where 
land tenure is in the private sector. Dhaka is a fast growing city with marginal green 
spaces, protected areas, and major lands owned as small pieces of private land by lowincome people with acute housing shortages. As a result, those areas are grasped for 
building construction illegally. Conservation areas can be implemented by compulsory 
land acquisition which has been mentioned by 22.18% of respondents. About 19.04% of 
the respondents recommended buying land at the market price by the government for this 
purpose. Another effective way is policy facilitation keeping the land in the private sector 
which was mentioned by 23.43% of respondents. This study reveals the perceptions of 
urban planning stakeholders in implementing Urban Conservation Areas in the Megacity 
Dhaka.