40 years of Korail slum: Tangled tales of land grab and legal disputes
In November 2020, Sanjida Ahmed Sinthia from Ahsanullah University of Science & Technology (AUST) published a case study on Korail slum in the International Journal of Urban and Civil Engineering.
In her paper titled Analysis of Urban Slum: Case Study of Korail Slum, Dhaka, she explored the history of Karail slum.
Quoting the Centre for Urban Studies (CUS) and other papers, her study says that in 1961, during Pakistani governance, the area was designated for the Department of Telegraph and Telephone Board (T&T), which is presently Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL).
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That time, it was under private tenure. Strict purchase conditions allowed the land to be used only by T&T. But in 1990, 90 acres were allotted to the Public Works Division (PWD), breaching the original contract.
When PWD started to develop the newly acquired land, the original owners took legal action against T&T for violating the contract. They demanded to return the land to their private ownership again.
In order to avoid further legal complications, T&T reclaimed the 90 acres of land they had given to PWD. There is dispute regarding the size of the land however, it varies between 90 to 93 to 110 acres.
Moreover, they labelled the previous development work begun by PWD as illegal.
TBS found in June last year that three parties were clear stakeholders in today's Korail slum area- T&T, PWD and the former private landowners.
In the 1990s, unoccupied pieces of the land were illegally captured by various T&T staff as well as gang leaders, along with godfathers and city ward commissioners.
These individuals began to rent out the land and housing to low-income and impoverished populations at low rates. Today's Korail slum stands as the result of that growing demand for inexpensive housing.
According to a 2022 policy brief by Buet, 87,606 people per square kilometre live here. The 2011 census says more than 40 thousand people were living inside the slum.
In the last 13 years, if there has been at least a 10,000 increase in population, more than 50,000 people are living in Korail now. If we divide the 90-acre land by 50000, it is around 78 square feet per person, which is less than the minimum space required for a person.
UN Habitat suggests that a minimum of 9 square metres (97 square feet) per person is necessary to meet basic needs, while the UNHCR Emergency Shelter Standards suggest 3.5 to 5.5 square metres (37.7 to 59 square feet) per person in emergency situations like refugee camps.
Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) have plans to build a high-tech park here. In 2012 the government began eviction drives in Korail so that construction of the Mohakhali ICT Village under the Private Sector Development Support Project could begin.
It was not possible as Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) and Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) filed petitions against evictions without rehabilitation.
In the petitions, ASK and BLAST cited Article 15 (a) of the Constitution, which states: "It shall be a fundamental responsibility of the state to…provide basic necessities of life, including food, clothing, shelter, education and medical care."
