How the revised DAP may worsen Dhaka’s liveability crisis

Every day, the Dhaka residents wake up to a city overburdened, polluted and hardly liveable. In the Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Liveability Index 2024, the capital ranked 168th out of 173 cities, placing it among the six least liveable cities in the world—only slightly above war-ravaged cities such as Damascus and Tripoli. 

Mercer's Quality of Living Index and Numbeo's Pollution Index tell a similar story. Dhaka performs dismally in air quality, green space, healthcare, and infrastructure. Air pollution regularly crosses the "unhealthy" threshold, with AQI readings often exceeding 100, while traffic congestion and poor urban mobility cripple productivity and daily life.  

Combined with limited access to open spaces, weak waste management, and a crumbling urban environment, these metrics reveal a city where unplanned expansion, noise, and smog have turned survival into a struggle—making Dhaka one of the world's least liveable capitals by any measure.

Yet, while cities across the world are striving to make themselves more compact, green, and people-orientated, Dhaka is taking an opposite route. The government's recent revision of the Detailed Area Plan (DAP) 2022–2035, which significantly raises building-height limits and floor area ratios (FAR) across most of the city, signals another wave of unrestrained vertical growth—one that could make the capital even more uninhabitable.

Higher buildings, denser neighbourhoods

According to the finalised version of the DAP, soon to be gazetted, building heights and FARs have been increased across nearly all areas under Rajuk's jurisdiction. In some places, the permissible FAR has more than doubled. For example, Mirpur's FAR rose from 2.8 to 3.4, Mohammadpur from 2.7 to 3.4, and Old Dhaka from 2.6 to 3.3. In certain areas like Mirpur DOHS and Khilkhet, the FAR almost doubled—from 2.5 to 4.8 and 2 to 4.4 respectively.

Similarly, housing-unit ratios have jumped. In Old Dhaka, developers can now build 13 flats on a five-katha plot instead of six; in Mirpur, Shewrapara, and Mohakhali, the permitted units have nearly doubled as well. The stated rationale behind this move is to accommodate a growing population and to promote Transit-Orientated Development (TOD), where higher density is planned around transport hubs.

Rajuk officials said the revision and draft rules were prepared after consultations with all stakeholders, keeping in mind Dhaka's practical realities. They also claim that the revision aligns the DAP with the Bangladesh National Building Code 2020 and encourages green building practices. Landowners will receive height incentives if they leave additional open space, while sewerage treatment plants have been made mandatory for plots over five kathas.

Chief Town Planner Md Ashraful Islam told The Business Standard, "The DAP revision balances environmental, residential, and business concerns. While mid-urban areas get higher height limits, block-based development is encouraged. Plots of five kathas or more must include sewage-treatment facilities."

He said the changes have been made considering Dhaka's current situation—height limits in areas around the central city such as Savar, Birulia, Keraniganj, Bhulta-Gausia and Narayanganj have been raised to help ease pressure on the core city.

Architect Mohammad Asaduzzaman Chowdhury, an urban planning expert, said, "Interestingly, ground coverage is not being increased—it is being reduced. Now, if ground coverage is not properly controlled, the space between buildings will shrink. For instance, even if I construct a six-storey building and the distance between buildings remains too narrow, the living environment will deteriorate. On the other hand, if I reduce ground coverage and increase the spacing between buildings, compensating with a few extra floors vertically, the overall environment will actually improve." 

Short-term convenience, long-term cost

Urban planners and environmentalists have long argued that Dhaka's core problem is not vertical scarcity but spatial imbalance. Almost everything—from administrative offices to hospitals, universities, and jobs—is concentrated in the capital. The DAP's original intent, published in 2022, was to reverse this by limiting unplanned densification and promoting decentralisation through satellite towns in Gazipur, Savar, and Narayanganj.

The latest revisions undo much of that vision. By allowing taller buildings and higher population densities within Dhaka, the government risks entrenching the very urban concentration it once vowed to disperse. 

"In many neighbourhoods, even fire trucks struggle to enter narrow lanes during emergencies. If that is the case now, what will happen during an earthquake or large-scale disaster, when the population density has further increased? By raising FAR without strengthening infrastructure or ensuring accessibility, we are simply amplifying the city's vulnerability—not its resilience." DR NABANITA ISLAM, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE, NSU

The 2010 Real Estate Development and Management Act and the 2004 Private Housing Project Land Development Rules were meant to curb such practices, yet violations persist.

This has resulted in recurrent flooding, loss of biodiversity, and environmental degradation. The latest DAP revision, by promoting vertical expansion without addressing these ecological constraints, risks compounding those very problems.

Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP) president Adil Mohammed Khan told The Business Standard, "This DAP revision entirely serves business interests. Instead of reducing Dhaka's pressure, raising population density from 250 to 300 is a reckless decision. In most global cities, density does not exceed 150–200. The FAR that was set earlier was already high; now it has been doubled. As a result, areas around central Dhaka will turn into vertical slums of high-rises."

He added, "Although the revised DAP and Building Rules 2025 stress block-based development, raising FAR and floor-unit counts will make Dhaka's traffic situation even worse. Where urban population pressure should be reduced, this plan increases it. Developers often violate open-space rules when constructing buildings, so granting further height relaxations only gives them more freedom."

He also said extending the approval period for construction applications from 45 to 180 days will cause more suffering for landowners. "Rajuk usually takes up to three months to process files—stretching this to six months will only add bureaucratic complexity," he noted.

Infrastructure deficit and safety risks

Dhaka's urban services—power, water, waste, transport—are already under pressure. Increasing population density without upgrading these systems will deepen the crisis. Fire safety is a case in point: the city's firefighting infrastructure is designed for buildings up to six storeys, yet high-rise clusters are proliferating faster than safety regulations can keep up.

Dr Nabanita Islam, Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture, North South University (NSU), "When you increase the FAR in a particular area, you are effectively increasing the number of households and, therefore, the population per plot. The question is: are our existing infrastructures—the road width, underground service lines, drainage and utilities—actually capable of bearing this additional load? The reality is that different agencies in Dhaka work in complete isolation. The city corporation, utility providers, and regulatory bodies all operate separately, with very little coordination."

She added, "Another crucial point is that around 80% of Dhaka's residents live in informal settlements. So, when property values go up due to higher FAR allowances, who actually benefits? What proportion of the population gains from this densification? Certainly not the majority living in low-income or informal areas, where road networks remain unchanged and accessibility is already limited."

A number of tragic accidents in recent years have shown us the glaring gaps in emergency response capacity, especially in congested areas like Banani, Mirpur, and Old Dhaka. Raising height limits across these zones without ensuring vertical fire and evacuation systems could make them death traps.

She pointed it out as well. "In many neighbourhoods, even fire trucks struggle to enter narrow lanes during emergencies. If that is the case now, what will happen during an earthquake or large-scale disaster, when the population density has further increased? By raising FAR without strengthening infrastructure or ensuring accessibility, we are simply amplifying the city's vulnerability—not its resilience," she further said. 

Traffic congestion, too, will worsen. Higher FARs will bring more residents and vehicles into areas where roads have not been widened in decades. Public transport planning remains rudimentary outside the metro rail corridor, while footpaths and cycle lanes are virtually non-existent. Unless the metrorail coverage is expanded, the public transportation system will be paralysed under the new influx of people. 

Architect Mohammad Asaduzzaman Chowdhury said, "The most crucial issue, however, is controlling accessibility. The continuous subdivision of land into small plots has worsened the situation. Had there been stricter measures to limit such fragmentation, Dhaka's overall urban environment would have been in far better shape." 

The decentralisation that never happened

One of DAP 2022's most ambitious goals was to decentralise Dhaka—to make peripheral towns like Keraniganj, Tongi, and Rupganj viable urban nodes. This was to be achieved through stricter height control in the capital and incentives for industries and institutions to relocate. The new revisions do the opposite. By making central areas more profitable for developers, they draw investment back into the already overcrowded city core.

Bangladesh's urbanisation model remains capital-centric. Nearly 40% of the country's GDP is generated in the greater Dhaka region, and over one-third of its urban population lives within the city's administrative boundaries. Without decentralised governance and incentives for regional growth, allowing taller buildings in Dhaka will not solve the housing shortage — it will simply concentrate people and pollution even further.