When Greater Badda was just water and fields
Driven by an influx of internal migrants, major infrastructure development, and the expansion of real estate, the former floodplain has grown into one of the capital’s most densely populated areas and is rapidly expanding into the mainland of Dhaka
Around 35 years ago, Ali Akbar recalled, he would leave his grocery shop in North Badda before dawn and take a passenger boat to Badamtali, a wholesale marketplace in Old Dhaka's Sadarghat, to buy fuel oil. It would take a whole day to buy the oil and carry the barrels back to his shop.
Ali does not know exactly when he was born, but he looked like he could be in his 80s. Even people in his own neighbourhood might not recognise him. But there is a well-known spot in North Badda called Alir Mor, named after him.
Locals say it is not because he is a wealthy benefactor who has done a lot for the community, but because he carries a significant part of its history and has witnessed how this low-lying floodplain on Dhaka's eastern fringe has transformed over the decades.
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"It was all water and crop fields back then," he said. And exactly where he now sits, there was once a sprawling pond.
Today, the Greater Badda, a larger part of the Eastern periphery of Greater Dhaka, bears little trace of the landscape Ali is talking about. Over the decades, it has grown into one of the capital's most densely populated neighbourhoods and is rapidly extending to the mainland of Dhaka.
An influx of internal migrants, major infrastructural developments, and rapid expansion of real estate and businesses have replaced this floodplain with a dense "concrete jungle".
Alia Shahed, an assistant professor in the Department of Architecture at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), said that the implementation of a colonial development approach has kept the area in a "development trap" for decades, just like other parts of the capital.
"Now it is going nowhere," she added.
The present-day Greater Badda stands on decades of land encroachment, rapid sand filling, and unplanned peri-urban settlements. A glance at satellite images from 20 years apart makes visible how this landscape was and how it is now. And yet, the floodplain has continued to be erased.
From rural fringe to inner suburb
Badda's history dates to the early 20th century, when it was largely rural land beyond Dhaka's municipal boundary. Its peripheral status, architect Alia Shahed argued, allowed it to develop "haphazardly rather than through planning".
During the Liberation War, the area's vast waterways made it difficult for the Pakistani army to conduct widespread operations. "As far as I heard, there was fighting in places like Satarkul and Vatara. Some days, the Pak Army came by boat. I also heard that a few people were killed in Samaid village," recalled Ali Akbar.
Badda's early population growth was also shaped by displacement. Around 1961, the Dhaka Improvement Trust (DIT) selected land for the planned Gulshan Model Town Project. As affluent residents moved in, many of the area's original inhabitants were relocated to nearby places, including Badda and Notun Bazar.
Until Pragati Sarani was established between the 1950s and 1960s, much of the area remained jungle, waterways and farmland outside formal municipal control.
"When I brought only a small amount of goods, I'd carry them on my head. I'd cross the water by boat and walk through the jungle before reaching North Badda," Ali recalled. He estimates that Pragati Sarani is only about 45 years old and says most modern establishments east of the road emerged within the past three decades.
Administratively, present-day Badda fell under Keraniganj during British rule, Tejgaon Thana during the Pakistan era, and later Gulshan Thana. As the Dhaka Metropolitan Police expanded, the jurisdiction was divided into several thanas. Badda Thana was formally established on 9 December 1998, covering 36.84 square kilometres, before Khilkhet Thana was carved out in 2005.
A groundbreaking shift in the landscape came after the Hatirjheel-Begunbari redevelopment, approved in 2007. Construction began in 2008, led by the Bangladesh Army, and the project opened to the public in January 2013. It transformed Badda from an isolated eastern fringe into a far more connected inner suburb.
Property values rose in Badda after these major infrastructural developments, pushing the area from affordable, semi-rural housing toward a recognisable middle-class urban settlement. Commercial activity has since concentrated along Pragati Sarani and the Gulshan-Badda Link Road, while the interior remains largely under development as a residential settlement.
In 2024, the Dhaka North City Corporation began building three bridges over the Rampura canal to improve connections between Aftabnagar and its neighbouring areas, an attempt to ease long-standing traffic bottlenecks.
The floodplain beneath the concrete
To understand where it all began, one must go to the bank of the Balu River, which originates in Belai Beel and surrounding wetlands near Tongi in Gazipur and flows along the eastern fringes of Gazipur and Dhaka, and eventually joins the Shitalakshya in Narayanganj.
"Geographically, Badda consisted largely of wetlands, floodplains, and low-lying land connected to Dhaka's broader eastern floodplain. Geomorphologically, this land must remain a combination of 'land and water', not land alone," said Alia Shahed.
Why, then, must it remain a combination of "land and water"? Alia explained that the answer lies in the geomorphology of Bangladesh's deltaic landscape.
During the monsoon, huge volumes of water flow downstream and spread across the floodplains of rivers such as the Balu and Shitalakshya before draining into larger systems such as the Meghna. These floodplains act as natural storage and conveyance areas, allowing excess water to move gradually through the delta. Greater Badda is one such landscape.
From east to west, Alia said, Dhaka was once interconnected through eight major wetland deposits, including canals such as Begunbari and Rampura. Most, however, have since been buried beneath layers of "development".
To the southwest of the Balu River, new settlements have emerged, while Greater Badda lies to its west. The area encompasses present-day Badda, Shahjadpur, Satarkul, Beraid, Merul, Aftabnagar and surrounding neighbourhoods.
The origin of the name Badda is less certain. One oral account, though not widely documented, links it to the nomadic Bede community, with Baidda gradually becoming Badda. Another possibility, Alia suggested, comes from the geomorphological term Baid, a long, narrow depression or low-lying wetland found alongside elevated Chala land in the Madhupur and Bhawal Tracts. Eastern Dhaka, including Badda, is characterised by such Baid landscapes.
"Geographically, Badda consisted largely of wetlands, floodplains, and low-lying land connected to Dhaka's broader eastern floodplain. Geomorphologically, this land must remain a combination of 'land and water', not land alone."
Floods, therefore, have long been inevitable. Greater Dhaka experienced major floods in 1954, 1955, 1968, 1971, 1974, 1987, 1988, 1998, 2004 and 2007. The 1988 flood submerged nearly 85% of Dhaka, killed more than 2,000 people and lasted almost three months.
In its aftermath, the government launched studies under the Flood Action Plan (FAP), dividing Dhaka into FAP 8A and 8B, with 8A covering eastern Dhaka.
"Under these two action plans, to protect Dhaka from flooding, the then President General Ershad planned to build two embankments around the city — one on the western side of the city that is now known as Beribadh and the other on the eastern side, surrounding the Balu River," said Chief Urban Planner Md Ashraful Islam of the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK).
Ashraful added that the idea behind these two embankments was that once both were completed, Dhaka would become a flood-protected city.
After a few years, the western embankment along the banks of the Turag River saw success.
"However, even so, when the 1995 Master Plan was prepared by the Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan (DMDP), it was still in the plan that the Eastern Embankment would eventually be constructed, and once it was completed, eastern Dhaka would become a future flood-protected urban area," said Ashraful.
Eventually, the proposed eastern embankment was never built, and no effective flood mitigation measures were adopted.
Not surprisingly, as a result, flooding has become a regular phenomenon in this part of Dhaka. And even in recent years, the devastation due to floods during the monsoon has been enormous.
A 2025 study titled "Hydromorphological Impact of the Balu River on Flooding of Eastern Dhaka" estimates that approximately 92% to 99% of the area remains susceptible to inundation during periods of intense monsoon rainfall.
Real estate reshaped the landscape
If migration reshaped Badda's population, it was the real estate industry that reshaped its landscape.
By the late 1980s, Greater Dhaka had begun to run out of developable land. Attention gradually shifted from the already densely urbanised western part to the vast lowlands on the eastern fringe.
Although the proposed eastern embankment was never built, the expectation that the area would eventually become flood-protected transformed the land market almost overnight.
"Because the eastern side had relatively little settlement compared to the other side, it was identified as the city's future growth area," said Md Ashraful Islam. "Along with the individuals, private developers started purchasing land there and developing housing projects."
From the early 1990s onwards, companies such as Eastern Housing Limited, United Group, Swadesh Properties Limited, and several other developers began acquiring extensive tracts of wetlands and agricultural land across Greater Badda and its surrounding areas.
The transformation was far from coordinated. Each developer purchased land independently and carried out development according to its own plan.
"One developer filled one section, another filled another. Since they could not acquire all the land in between, many plots remained undeveloped. Water continued to accumulate in those areas, gradually turning them into isolated wetlands," Ashraful explained.
The first generation of housing projects also exposed the lack of urban planning standards. Ashraful said formal regulations for private housing development did not exist when development began around 1990. Early approvals relied largely on mouza maps, with developers not required to provide adequate public facilities.
"If you look at the early phases of Eastern Housing, you will notice that they have very few public facilities," he said.
The situation changed with the Private Housing Project Land Development Rules, 2004, which required developers to include roads, drainage, open spaces and other civic facilities. RAJUK later strengthened oversight through the Detailed Area Plan (DAP), making compliance with planning standards a condition for approval.
Ashraful, however, believes private developers remain indispensable to Dhaka's growth.
"Without private entrepreneurs, neither RAJUK nor the government would be able to meet the city's housing demand. But they cannot be allowed to operate without regulation," he said.
To bridge this gap, RAJUK is promoting a "land readjustment model", already used in Japan, South Korea, India, Nepal and Thailand. Instead of selling their land, owners contribute part of it for roads, drainage and public facilities.
He believes the proposed Land Readjustment Regulation, awaiting final approval, could be an "important milestone" by ensuring landowners benefit from development while giving developers a clearer regulatory framework.
