Save Osmani Udyan from further concretisation

It is extremely disappointing to witness the never-ending construction work at Osmani Udyan, located near Gulistan under the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC). Known as the "lung of the capital", the park has been off-limits for nearly eight years now. During the Awami League regime, the DSCC undertook various development projects to modernise the park, and the work has dragged on indefinitely due to inefficiency and mismanagement. Now, as city dwellers eagerly await its reopening, the interim government has begun implementing another project—building a memorial monument to commemorate the July uprising. While honouring uprising martyrs is very important, does it make sense to build this monument inside a park, especially one already overburdened with concrete structures?

Reportedly, the local government ministry has undertaken the project at a cost of Tk 46 crore, and construction work has already begun. Urban planners, however, have said that before taking on any such projects within parks, the standard practice around the world is to first present the proposal to the public and finalise the design based on feedback before implementation begins. But in the case of this project and the others before it, we have not heard of any such initiatives taken by the government. While these unaccountable practices were rampant during the AL regime, they cannot be accepted in post-uprising Bangladesh.

Moreover, according to urban planners, architects, and environmentalists, our rules clearly state that concrete structures can occupy up to five percent of a park's area, and no structure taller than 16 feet can be built inside a park. But in Osmani Udyan, construction has already exceeded that limit, and the new monument is supposed to be 90-feet high. More worryingly, the site selected for the construction is the area designated as a children's play zone in the current development plan, according to sources at the local government ministry. All this highlights poor planning and negligence, to say the least.

Due to excessive concretisation, Osmani Udyan has already lost much of its original character, and the prolonged renovation has come at a heavy cost to the city residents. The government, therefore, should stop building additional concrete structures. Regarding the construction of the July memorial monument, it is essential that the decision is made through thorough consultation with all stakeholders. Experts have suggested that a museum preserving the memories of the uprising could be established inside an existing building there, while the monument could be built elsewhere. We hope the government will reconsider its decision and protect the park from further concretisation.