Can Farmgate's Anwara Park become a breathing space in the heart of Dhaka?

At the intersection in Farmgate, one of Dhaka's busiest areas, lies Anwara Park. Yet, it may go unnoticed by those unaware of its existence and history.

Named after Anwara Begum, who was martyred during the mass uprising of 1969, the park does little justice to her sacrifice. A barren patch of land littered with rubbish and devoid of seating, it lies in the heart of the city, abandoned for seven to eight years.

The park was closed in 2018 to accommodate metro rail construction work and serve as a project office. It remained neglected for years, with construction materials piled up across the site.

Later, on 9 January 2026, Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) formally handed over the park to Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and reopened it for public use. The park is currently undergoing renovation and redevelopment to give it a new look. According to the Public Works Department, the site will be renovated into a proper park, possibly before 2028.

A park hidden in plain sight

The entrance to the park is a gap between a mosque and a public toilet. The toilet is in poor shape, as are many public toilets in Bangladesh, and the gate beside it is in even worse condition. A fence and a barricade roughly mark the boundary.

Most people in Farmgate walk past without realising there is a park behind them, which is understandable given its surroundings. The metro station sits at one end, with houses and markets at the other. Anwara Uddan Mosque stands between the toilet and the field, while the road in front carries the kind of traffic that makes crossing it an act of faith.

Inside, an abandoned rickshaw and a van have taken over the walkway, with vegetation growing around them. Nobody seems to have planned for this. The field is roughly the length of two football pitches, and the amount of litter is hard to exaggerate.

There are seven trees. The last time I checked, there was also a goat. Two goalposts stand at the metro end, rubble is piled to one side, and patches of scorched ground mark where small bonfires have been lit. Three men sat in a far corner, one of them shirtless. I kept my distance and would not speculate in print about what they were doing.

There are no vendors inside, which is unusual for an open space of this size in Dhaka, where a crowd usually attracts someone selling tea or peanuts. There is no seating and no lighting that I could see. It is a ground for local residents, left to them either by design or by default.

How people kept the ground alive

Mohammad Adnan Hossain, 12, has been coming here almost every day for about two years.

"Local people and students from different schools and colleges play football and cricket there and hold tournaments. Older men sometimes sit around and smoke cigarettes."

According to him, the gate generally stays open, but the police sometimes lock it. "We climb over the fence or try to break the lock," he said. "Once we get in, we start playing."

He claimed that no government officials had ever come to clean the park. The boys clean it themselves when they need to play. As for who leaves the rubbish behind, he said, "We do. We come, play, eat chips and drink soft drinks. The packets stay in the field."

An elderly vendor on the opposite side of the road, around 60, declined to give his name. He has worked there for the better part of two decades and remembers a different place.

"Before, it was a good park. There were trees and shade. People came and rested. Now it is used for playing, which is not what a park is for. With busy streets on both sides, balls hit people, cars, lights and stalls. The players are locals whom people cannot argue with," he said.

He also described the park as a hotspot for drug users who smoke cannabis, a problem he said had grown, particularly after 5 August. City Corporation and Metro Rail staff sometimes close the field and tell people not to play, he said, but they do not listen.

"The plan includes a Miyawaki forest, a football turf and a walkway around the park. There will also be a running track, and new technology will be used for the drainage system. Water-sensitive urban design has also been proposed." Nahid Parvez, executive engineer, Public Works Department, Ministry of Housing and Public Works

A promised green revival

Fariba Halim Aurin, staff officer to the chief engineer of the Public Works Department under the Ministry of Housing and Public Works, said a meeting on the park had taken place at the Prime Minister's Office a few days earlier. She said a major redevelopment project was planned, one that would reflect the Prime Minister's vision. 

"It looks like barren land now, but work will begin soon," she said.

The proposed design draws inspiration from parks abroad, with exotic trees that change colour with the seasons. Aurin emphasised that the plan called for trees, not plants or herbs, and said sourcing the right varieties would take time. 

The redevelopment would also include the public toilet and mosque, with wheelchair access, clean walkways, and grass and sand landscaping, all designed, she said, "in a scientific way, a beautiful way".

Nahid Parvez, an executive engineer at the department, was more specific about what needs to happen first. The ground must be cleared before construction can begin, and much of the debris came from the metro rail project, which had leased the park until July.

"We hope to start the project by December, but first we have to clear the rubble. There is a lot of leftover debris from the metro rail project, to which we leased the park until July. Once the cleaning is complete, we hope to begin construction and finish it within 18 to 24 months," he said.

Tenders will be invited from local companies only after the clearing work is complete. The proposed budget is around Tk10.11 crore, and the project will be carried out entirely by Bangladeshi engineers.

"The plan includes a Miyawaki forest, a football turf and a walkway around the park. There will also be a running track, and new technology will be used for the drainage system. Water-sensitive urban design has also been proposed," Parvez said.

The football turf, in particular, could be welcome news for Hossain and his friends, who currently play on a ground strewn with rubble.

Aurin had said construction would be completed before 2028. Parvez's timeline, however, suggests completion between mid-2028 and the end of that year, assuming work begins in December and the debris is cleared beforehand.

"Intensive arboriculture work will be done, as we intend to plant a lot of trees," Parvez said. "Once we are done with the project, the park will become the lungs of the Farmgate area."