Adopt FAR architecture

. PHOTO: AFP

It is unfortunate that many greedy professionals succumb to the unscientific proposals from the clients; with the result that we are being swamped by concrete jungles in Dhaka metro and other cities and industrial and residential areas. We are developing vertically too fast!

The government is aware of the technical nuisance effect, but the concerned agencies are too powerless or too greedy to enforce proper monitoring and regulations (DCC, Rajuk, and the metro coordinating agencies). The cumulative effect is disastrous as we can already see in Dhaka. The traffic flow around such huge buildings are not coordinated properly during the planning, approval, and implementation stages.

Not that we do not have the awareness or expertise; but the professional ethics cultivated currently is poor, as such negative compromises are not in public interest in the long run.

Residential buildings more than three floors high (walk up) may be discouraged for a decade (foundation for higher floors may be allowed in the right zones), as the power supply problem persists (lifts and air-conditioning), and the present roads are too narrow to handle the additional traffic around. Water supply is another big problem. [Now we cannot get running water in our rented flat in a residential area in Dhaka, as we used to get a few years back.]

The economy is galloping in the higher income bracket group; plus money laundering in various forms has become big business, with many offshoots, visible to the urban residents. The GDP may be rising, but not proportionately, as the gap between the top and the bottom levels of the society is too disparaging. The rich are getting richer, although development in the rural areas is not invisible. The base can be broadened with more emphasis on rural development strategies. This is not being carried out in modular format.

The government has to urgently single out the unsociable effects of corrupt practices, and launch a project to counteract the same.