Physical Density and Urban Sprawl: A Case of Dhaka City - KTH

Banani, and Baridhara as residential areas for the high income people and Uttara for middle
income people. Those areas are being used as residential areas with minor commercial
activities. Few development projects have being under consideration for the housing of low
income people. After forming Bangladesh, only one project came under consideration for
residents of low income people. Mirpur area has been developed as a part of that project. It
can be considered as a pure residential area with some garments factories.
Table 3.3 is showing the land use pattern of mega city Dhaka where agricultural land is about
47%, residential land is approximately 25%, very little amount like about 3% of vacant land
and water bodies about 10%. Most of the water bodies and open spaces are being filled up to
build formal and informal housing settlements.
Table 3.3: Amount of land use for different purposes in the mega city (percentage).
Residen Commer Indus Institu Agricul Recrea Vacant Water Others
tial
cial trial tional tural tional land bodies
25.32 3.96 2.49 1.63 46.8 0.84 3.09 9.94 0.06
Source: World Bank, 2006
Table 3.4 illustrates the overall situation of open space in Dhaka city Corporation (DCC)
where about 22% of total land is open space. The area of mega city is bigger than DCC. Here
open space means land for agricultural, gardening, graveyard, lake, vacant space, park, play
ground, pond and swamp. Among them agricultural land has taken major part (about 12%)
then vacant land (about 5%). Here agriculture means the rural agriculture in the fringe area of
the DCC. The percentage of Recreational place and water bodies is very low which is
negligible for any mega city like Dhaka.
Table 3.4: Distribution of Open Spaces in DCC.
Type of Open Space Area (hectare) Percentage of Total Area
Agricultural 1971.22 12.12
Garden 146.49 0.901
Graveyard 5.87 0.036
Lake 24.57 0.151
Vacant Space 811.24 4.991
Park 145.1 0.892
Playground 63.32 0.390
Pond 40.92 0.252
Swamp 295.83 1.82
Urban Forest 3.24 0.02
Total 3507.8 21.573
Source: Bhadra and Shammin, 2001
3.6 Density and Housing supply system
There are varieties of housing delivery system in Dhaka city. Figure 3.5 shows the housing
supply system of Dhaka city. 93% of total housing is being provided by the private sector
(BBS, 2001). Private sector supplies both formal and informal housing settlements. The
informal sector includes the provisions of both sub-illegally and illegally constructed
housing. Sub-illegal housing supply includes the housing constructed on legally occupied
land but violating building codes. The slums are also developed in the same way. The
individuals develop very low quality slums on their own land with legal title but the
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