In the rapidly evolving landscape of urbanisation and transportation infrastructure in Bangladesh, it is critical to address the disparities in public transportation access that disproportionately affect vulnerable people such as older adults and people with disabilities. This scoping review aims to synthesise the available evidence and highlight research gaps on unequal access to public transportation and how these inequalities lead to the social exclusion of older adults and people with disabilities in Bangladesh. We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses, Scoping Review Extension (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines and employed thematic analysis to interpret the findings. Four databases Scopus, Embase, PubMed and Web of Science, and online sources such as Google Scholar and TRID were searched from January 2002 to July 2022. The findings show that the existing modes of transportation are inadequate and non-inclusive and pose both physical (including built environments such as roads, ramps, and footpaths) and social barriers (such as low income, low employment opportunities, and negative social attitude) which reduced the accessibility to workplaces, healthcare, and social networks for these two vulnerable groups. An inclusive and sustainable urban transport infrastructure, older adult-specific and disabled-friendly transportation policies, and behaviour changes are significant steps to improve safety and social inclusion. The transport authorities have ignored the transport necessities of these vulnerable groups and (in)advertently pushed them towards marginalised sections. This study theoretically contributes to the age-friendly city framework for older adults and people with disabilities by adopting an inclusive urban mobility approach for all.

Dhaka city is experiencing tremendous growth in traffic. Until recently, the city’s demand for traffic was entirely served by public buses, a mix of motorized and non-motorized paratransit, and private personalized transport. The first ever rail-based metro, mass rapid transit (MRT), namely MRT Line 6, was partially inaugurated on 28 December 2022. Authority expects that there will be visible modal shift. However, MRT systems in many Asian and European countries are attracting much lower private motorists than what is expected. Moreover, in Dhaka, a unique mix in road-based transport with public transit and varieties of paratransit and private personalized vehicles intensifies the uncertainties involved in modal shift. Therefore, based on a field survey done before four (04) months of the partial inauguration of MRT Line 6, this study intends to explore the modal shift potentials of different mode users to a completely new mode and the modal choice factors. The analysis of the results finds overall, 75% of all mode users are willing to shift, while para and public transit users are comparatively more willing than private personalized vehicle users. However, such willingness comes up with one or more conditions: comfort, reasonable fare, reduced total travel time, less crowd, etc. The study finds that affordability, availability, and accessibility factors have an influence on their modal shift behavior. Also, results from binary logistic model identify significant impact of several sociodemographic, trip- and accessibility-related factors influencing modal shift choice. Findings from this study explain the optimism regarding MRT by different mode users and inform the decision-makers about their course of actions including different interventions, strict and carrot approaches to hold on to the potential shifters and attract more.

Growing travel demand and technological development provoke to enhance the share of ridehailing services within urban transportation sector in the developing countries. To keep pace with this flow, Uber service has been launched in Dhaka, Bangladesh and is getting popular to city dwellers. Despite this, very little information is available regarding the user groups, their trip characteristics and service quality of ridehailing in the context of developing countries. In addition to this, effects of such service on other modes and users’ view about service are at unexplored state which is important to ensure a sustainable and equitable transport system. This study intends to investigate these issues where questionnaire survey through face-to-face interview has been conducted among the Uber users of Dhaka using simple random sampling technique. The data are analyzed engaging descriptive statistics and statistical modeling. Results show that Uber is used by comparatively wealthy younger social groups despite they claim to pay more than other alternative modes even than the specified fare by Uber that put forward the issue of equity. In accordance with user’s opinion, better accessibility, safety, comfort and existence of emergency situation influence their decision to choose Uber instead other modes like CNG, taxi services etc. Uber users of Dhaka mainly share trips with their acquaintance ones. Moreover most of the users claim the facilities on Uber car and GPS system of app need to be developed for enhancing the service quality that may further assist the decision making of integrated sustainable transport system.

Local government bodies and other concerned agencies in developing countries spend a considerable amount of money on rural road development. However, in the absence of any robust and systematic methodology, road development largely relies on ad-hoc decisions and subjective judgement of public officials. Such a decision-making process often leads to inefficient resource allocation bypassing equity and long-term societal benefits. Although there are some established methodologies for road network planning, complexities exist in applying those methods. First, most of the established methods are not suitable for rural road development, particularly regarding the volume and nature of traffic on them. Second, some methods are highly complex and lack practical applicability. Third, road development planning should not be top-down alone but ensure the participation of local stakeholders. Given these limitations, this study proposes a methodology—Rural Road Planning and Prioritisation Model (RPPM). It consists of two major components (i) developing a core network in participation with local stakeholders and (ii) prioritisation of roads based on Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) and Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA). The proposed method is piloted in one district, and a web-based software is also developed for practical implementation by the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), Bangladesh. The paper also discusses the results of the pilot study.

Background and Objectives Buses are the most common form of public transport for older adults in developing countries. With over 37% of total trips, buses are the principal mode of transport in Dhaka. The majority of older adults are dependent on buses because of their affordability relative to other modes such as auto-rickshaws, rideshares, and taxis. This study aims to investigate key barriers in accessing buses in Dhaka and the consequences of these barriers to the everyday mobility of older adults. Research Design and Methods Thirty participants aged 60 and older were recruited from 2 socioeconomically different neighborhoods in Dhaka. We employed a thematic analysis of visual surveys and in-depth interviews to understand older adults’ spatial and cultural context and their experiences using buses in their everyday lives. Results Boarding and deboarding buses were common barriers for older adults due to overcrowding and traffic congestion. In addition, older adults faced challenges such as ageism, gender discrimination, and undesirable behavior by transport personnel and co-passengers. These barriers affected their independent mobility and influenced their access to work and social life, contributing to their social exclusion. Discussion and Implications This study illustrates the challenges faced by older adults when accessing public transport and the need to improve access to work, health care, and social life. Inclusive transport policies are essential in low- and middle-income countries to improve the well-being of older adults.

In this study, we aimed to evaluate the performance of various machine learning (ML) classifiers to predict mode choice of movement-challenged persons (MCPs) based on data collected through a questionnaire survey of 384 respondents in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The mode choice set consisted of CNG-driven auto-rickshaw, bus, walking, motorized rickshaw, and non-motorized rickshaw, which was found as the most prominent mode used by MCPs. Age, sex, income, travel time, and supporting instrument (as an indicator of the level of disability) utilized by MCPs were explored as predictive variables. Results from the different split ratios with 10-fold cross-validation were compared to evaluate model outcomes. A split ratio of 60% demonstrates the optimum accuracy. It was found that Multi-nominal Logistic Regression (MNL), K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) show higher accuracy for the split ratio of 60%. Overfitting of bus and walking as a travel mode was found as a source of classification error. Travel time was identified as the most important factor influencing the selection of walking, CNG, and rickshaw for MNL, KNN, and LDA. LDA and KNN depict the supporting instrument as a more important factor in mode choice than MNL. The selection of rickshaw as a mode follows a relatively normal probability distribution, while probability distribution is negatively skewed for the other three modes.

This study explores how poor accessibility conditions of the built environment and transport system influences decision-making regarding regular and occasional trips of Movement Challenged Persons (MCPs) in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It explain show MCPs appropriate their mobility in a challenging context with the help family members which causes physical, financial, and other challenges for the supporting persons. Information on travel modes, travel time, destination and distance, and cost for trips made by MCPs and all accompanying family members have been collected through travel diaries of ten MCPs and their family members. Findings show that rickshaw and auto rickshaw are the most preferred travel modes by MCPs. Lack of elevators and ramps in buildings, unfavorable surface condition has been found major deterrents discouraging MCPs to make occasional trips. Existence of stairs without handrails, ramp with high slopes in buildings, lack of ramps in buses have found to compel MCPs to depend on family members for mobility related support. On average, escorting family members travel 46 km/week of additional distance requiring 284 min/week to make additional trips. To travel by modes other than public bus, MCPs or their parents have been found to pay 7%–20% of monthly income.

Pavement dwellers remain largely outside any shelter and social service schemes in developing countries. Programs for urban poor are settlement specific and primarily targeted to slum communities. A number of initiatives did not succeed in the past mainly because those were limited to providing temporary shelters only. Since homelessness is a multidimensional problem, an effective intervention needs to provide multifaceted support to homeless people. This paper presents the case of Amrao Manush project which has developed a model framework to uplift the living condition of homeless people through the Pavement Dweller Centers (PDC). The PDC offers shelter and multidimensional support to pavement dwellers including day care facility, child education, basic health care service, and skill development training. The project demonstrates how a continuous and stepwise process of upgradation – ranging from providing basic shelter and services to skill development training – can empower homeless people to overcome extreme poverty, find employment opportunities and eventually move out of streets. The paper also discusses the major strengths and weaknesses and suggests potential strategies for further scaling-up the initiative.

The available approaches for measuring accessibility are rigid and complex in nature, and mostly impractical for decision-makers as they require a large number of data, logistics support, and technical knowledge. Therefore, this study seeks to propose a flexible and practical approach for quantifying and ranking the accessibility to market facilities in rural areas. A three-stage multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach is proposed to fulfill the objective. The first stage involves the identification of factors that influence the accessibility to rural market facilities. The next stage involves the use of the Constant-Sum Paired-Comparison Method (CSPCM) to determine the priority of each identified factor. The third stage adopts the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to quantify and rank the accessibility to market facilities of rural areas. To illustrate a real-world application, accessibility to market facilities in ten sub-districts of Bangladesh have been quantified and ranked by using this proposed approach. Results of this application support the claim that MCDM approach is a practical, flexible, and reliable approach that would better assist the policy-makers to identify poor accessible rural areas.

Background To prevent the viral transmission from higher infected to lower infected area, controlling the vehicular traffic, consequently public movement on roads is crucial. Containment strategies and local cognition regarding pandemic might be helpful to control vehicular movement. This study aimed to ascertain the effectiveness of containment strategies and local cognition for controlling traffic volume during COVID-19 pandemic in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Method Six containment strategies were considered to explore their influence on traffic condition, including declaration of general holiday, closure of educational institution, deployment of force, restriction on religious gathering, closure of commercial activities, and closure of garments factories. Newspaper coverage and public concern about COVID-19 were considered as local cognition in this research. The month of Ramadan as a potential event was also taken into account considering it might have an impact on the overall situation. Average daily journey speed (ADJS) was calculated from real-time traffic data of Google Map to understand the vehicular traffic scenario of Dhaka. A multiple linear regression method was developed to comprehend the findings. Results The results showed that among the containment strategies, declaration of general holiday and closure of educational institutions could increase the ADJS significantly, thereby referring to less traffic movement. Besides, local cognition could not significantly affect the traffic condition, although the month of Ramadan could increase the ADJS significantly. Conclusion It is expected that these findings would provide new insights into decision-making and help to take appropriate strategies to tackle the future pandemic situation.

Background: The emergence of COVID-19 pandemic has not only shaken the global health sector, but also almost every other sector, including economic and education sectors. Newspapers are performing a significant role by featuring the news of COVID-19 from its very onset. The temporal fluctuation of COVID-19 related key themes presented in newspaper articles and the findings obtained from them could offer an effective lesson in dealing with future epidemics and pandemics. Aim and method: This paper intends to develop a pandemic management framework through an automated content analysis of local newspaper coverage of COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. To fulfill the aim, 7,209 newspaper articles are assembled and analyzed from three popular local newspapers named “bdnews24.com”, “New Age”, and “Prothom Alo English” over the period from January 1, 2020 to October 31, 2020. Results: Twelve key topics are identified: origin and outbreak of COVID-19, response of healthcare system, impact on economy, impact on lifestyle, government assistance to the crisis, regular updates, expert opinions, pharmaceutical measures, non-pharmaceutical measures, updates on vaccines, testing facilities, and local unusual activities within the system. Based on the identified topics, their timeline of discussion, and information flow in each topic, a four-stage pandemic management framework is developed for epidemic and pandemic management in future. The stages are preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation. Conclusion: This research would provide insights into stage-wise response to any biological hazard and contribute ideas to endure future outbreaks.

The concentrated development in the urban areas attracts people to migrate into cities for a better living and consequently leading towards the root causes of many socio-economic and environmental nuisances. Moreover, the high-density urban living engines the rapid spread of contagious diseases and thereby threatening the lives of millions of people. The high death rate and affected cases of COVID-19 in Dhaka City, Bangladesh, and its nearby areas, i.e., Gazipur and Narayanganj, gives a clear indication of the importance of activity center decentralization. Due to the growing demand for healthcare, it has become necessary to decentralize the health care facilities to the remote areas and the Government of Bangladesh has already adopted some key measures. In this context, this particular research has tried to determine the mutilated amenity facilities for diversified stakeholders aiming parallel discouragement of the out-migration of skilled professionals and attracting the non-local professionals to live in rural Bangladesh. The research critically argues that if proper facilities can be provided in rural areas, rural to urban migration can be demotivated. It also argues that the development of small urban activity centers will help emergency situation management. The methodology includes an amalgam of a two-step exploratory and descriptive survey prior to and during the global COVID-19 outbreak. The determinants and precedence of required services were determined by Focus Group Discussion (FGD), structured direct questionnaire surveys, secondary online questionnaire surveys and persona approach. The outcome of the research proposes a glimpse of management measures for Bangladesh to tackle future pandemic situation which could be a role model for developing cities also.

Sustainability of transport system depends on a range of services and impacts produced by transport which can be indicated by several factors like mode choice, affordability, equity, accessibility, pollution, safety and efficiency. To address the increasing congestion problem and demand of mobility carsharing service was introduced in urban areas through focusing sustainability. Uber is a ridesharing service catered for an easy, comfortable, and convenient urban travel experience. It was launched in Dhaka in 2016. As a new alternative mode is available to the city dwellers, many of them are using it. The study intended to identify the Uber users as well as to understand their use pattern and preferences from sustainability perspective. For this study data were collected through in person questionnaire survey of Uber users at several potential points of users by random sampling method. The study has used descriptive approaches to investigate the issues. Results show that Uber is mostly used by the people of middle to high income younger age group due to its better accessibility and safety. Due to higher fare structure low to middle income people can not avail this service which is a negative point for Uber as far as sustainability is concerned. Uber trips are found most likely to be shifted from CNG and Taxi. Uber has no impact to change private car ownership status and car use. In some cases Uber has diverted trips from non-motorized modes. It is clear from the observation of this study that Uber is providing service to a particular segment of the population with less sustainability concern of urban transport in Dhaka.

In Bangladesh, there is no such provision for assessment of users' priority in rural road development works. This study attempts to show the significance of this issue by assessing users' priority for different types of rural road development works. Users' priority varies from socioeconomic characteristics of rural areas. Due to this variation, priority assessment is not the same for all upazilas which should be an important consideration in rural road development projects. In other Asian countries like India, Nepal, users' participation in rural road development projects is regarded as a crucial part. But in Bangladesh, there are no such initiatives for users' participation in planning, implementing and monitoring rural road development projects. For this reason, rural road development projects are not properly assessed the users' demand .This study explores such issues through the assessment of users' priorities which should be considered for sustaining the rural road development works and thus helping them to contribute a lot in the rural economy.

About 60% of the trips are made on foot in Dhaka city but the pedestrians are the most vulnerable group among the road users. It is identified that more than 48% of reported road accidents and 72% of reported fatalities were pedestrians in Dhaka Metropolitan City. Among them, a large percentage of pedestrian crashes occurred in the intersection area. This study attempted to analyse the existing scenario of three accident-prone intersections of Dhaka city- Sonargaon-Panthapath, Jatrabari, and Shapla Chattar and redesign the intersections to ensure pedestrian safety. For the study, geographic elements were analysed and traffic studies were conducted for both vehicles and pedestrians of the intersections. Each of the legs of the intersections was incorporated in the study to know about the actual existing traffic scenario and problems of the intersections. After that, opinions of the stakeholders were collected regarding the redesign of the intersection. It was found that the geographical condition of the intersections was very poor. Sidewalks and roadways were mainly occupied by illegal hawkers, illegal parking, ticket counters. Besides, the roundabouts and central islands were not well-designed to control the vehicular and pedestrian traffic. So, these three intersections were redesigned by considering their land use, traffic flow, surroundings and the available standards. Overall pedestrian safety is expected to improve at those intersections if the proposed design is implemented.

The paper initially provides a succinct overview of physical growth and socio-cultural distinctiveness of Dhaka (the capital city of Bangladesh) - shaped by its primacy in the national and regional hierarchy for more than 400 years. The paper primarily assesses the challenges that Dhaka is currently facing. It is Bangladesh's most unequal city. Despite a historical legacy of formal and civic committee based planning experience, it has remained an organically developed city without effective interventions from planning and implementing agencies to make it more liveable for the poor. Transport policy and interventions are antagonistic towards rickshaws, walking and cycling. The mega city has neither efficient public transport nor mass transit. It only has insufficient urban water transport. Informality of living and jobs are highly ingrained in its everyday lifeline, mainly contributed by the bosti dwellers for whom land use distribution and land ownership are much disproportionate, skewed and unjust. Although they are the majority, service and infrastructure provisions including housing, health, transportation, and safety remained highly compromised for them. With ‘systemic invasion’ of its land around rivers, lakes and other water-bodies and wetlands by the ‘elites’, the city is becoming less liveable. It is more prone to floods as it currently has no formal adaptation, disaster risk reduction or prevention policies, practices or initiatives in place.

Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh is one of the most populated megacity in the world and the population growth in this city is extremely high. To support growing food demand of increasing population, food supply should be secure and sustainable. On the other hand, with the pace of urbanization built-up areas are increasing; hence supply of roof space is also increasing. Rooftop farming can provide solution to increased food demand and also can promote a sustainable and livable city. Local fresh and safe food can be ensured through roof gardens in Dhaka city. The aim of the study is to explore the present practice and challenges of rooftop farming that was encountered by practitioners. Mirpur and Mohammadpur areas have been selected as study areas. Two practitioners are interviewed and 60 non-practitioners are surveyed. Results show that rooftop farming can support environment by improving air quality, reducing carbon in the atmosphere and can benefit society by reducing storm water management cost. One of the significant findings from the non-practitioner survey is that maximum people are willing to practice rooftop farming and want to provide at least 50% of roof space for rooftop farming. Finally some recommendations have been suggested to improve rooftop farming practice and encourage more people to practice rooftop farming in future.

This paper investigates relationship between the distribution patterns of the schools and the human development index value of the respective study areas. In this study 50 upazilas have been selected out of 460 upazilas in Bangladesh. The distribution patterns of the primary and high school in each selected upazila have been analyzed through the "Nearest Neighbor Analysis" method. Then the value of Human Development Index (HDI) for each upazila has been determined. Finally a positive correlation between those two indices has been determined. This research can assist the policy makers to take proper decisions while selecting locations for schools keeping the broad view in mind which is development of that particular area.

Migration is defined by the movement of people or groups of people from one place to another. As rural areas lack proper facilities and services, people tend to migrate to urban areas in hope of better standard of life. This causes various problems in urban areas. These problems can only be reduced if sufficient facilities are provided in the rural areas. This study attempts to find out the facilities and services required by both the local and non-local people living in the rural areas. The findings from the study are based on data collected through questionnaire surveys. The findings reflect the level of satisfaction of people with various facilities. Also it reflects the priority of services and facilities that are the most required by the local and non-local respondents. A lot of variation was revealed regarding requirements of the local and non-local people among the five districts (Moulvibazar, Bogra, Bagerhat, Pabna, Kishoregonj) under inspection. Based on the analyses, the study recommends some important facilities that should be provided to keep the people away from moving to major cities. If facilities and services of priority are provided then people will find the places more comfortable for living and the interest to migrate will reduce.

Urban population in Bangladesh is increasing day by day because of rural poverty and hope for a better living condition in the urban areas. With the increase of urban population, a gradual decrease has been occurred in the urban facilities and opportunities. Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh has become unlivable mainly because of indifference, mismanagement and wrong planning continuing over the years in an uninterrupted sequence. The authorities have failed to create a situation where the citizens can live in minimum comfort both within and outside their homes. They suffer most because of the lack of necessary infrastructures, power and gas supply being highly erratic, water crisis being most common during summer, and drainage and swear system being under-developed. Nearly onethird of the population lives having no basic amenities of life (Zahid, 2010). There are a number of studies available on services offered by urban governments (Hossain, 2006). But there is a little work especially in case of Dhaka focusing on people’s sufferings due to mismanagement of these services. Most of the researches conducted in Dhaka focused on the distressed low income group living in slums that cover 15% of the total citizens in Dhaka (Asian Development Bank, 2008). The suffering of the low middle and middle income group (the dominant income group of Dhaka city) has always been overlooked in most of the researches because of focusing on the low income group. But the extent of sufferings is different between these two groups. Where the Low income group generally suffer from health and environment related problems (Podymow et al, n.d), the middle income groups, also experience an adverse impact on their day to day life due to lack of necessary utility services. These differences are particularly evident in case of Dhaka due to its unplanned growth and inhabitants’ extremely divergent living standards (Bertuzzo, 2009). Capital Dhaka is considered as the mirror of Bangladesh. If Dhaka remains energy starved, it creates wrong image for the entire country. But for various reasons, Dhaka city suffers greatly from power load shedding, gas rationing and water crisis that affect Dhaka every now and then (Saleque, 2008). Gas, water and power supply have influence on the citizen’s daily life cycle and activities. If any interruption occurs, people try to handle it by occupying alternative sources and compromising their daily schedule. The poor urban management and planning have led to a very high extent of informality in its dwellers’ routines (Bertuzzo, 2009). People compromise their daily schedule, because these problems are infrastructure based and they can do a little in solving these problems.

Planning mobilities in contemporary cities, particularly in developing countries, increasingly focuses on promoting motorised transport (MT) at the expense – side-lined if not banned – of non-motorised transport (NMT). As NMT serves the needs of a range of users, decisions of this kind are highly politicised favouring some forms of mobility, and interest, over others; this raises concerns about justice in access to transport. To planners and decision-makers the question of just mobilities - a concept developed in this research combining literature mainly on social justice and mobilities - poses a range of challenges: equitable distribution of direct/indirect benefits and burdens, fair process of decision making and execution in introduction or restriction/ban of any given transport mode or infrastructure, justification of motivations in political terms. Apart from redressing weakness in sustainability studies on mobility and transport, the proposition provides a broader framework to look into the distribution of existing and potential human mobilities, process and associated motivations (politics). The framework is used to explore the impact of a planning intervention – rickshaw bans/restrictions in Dhaka, Bangladesh - on the users at household level. Around one million rickshaws – a human pedalled tri-cycle usually carrying two persons – shared more than onethird of the total of 19.58 million trips in Dhaka in 2009. The volume of passengers transported (7.6 million person-trips/day in 2009), is equally astonishing; close to double the highest number of passengers (4.4 million) carried by London Tube in a single day during the 2012 Olympics. Yet in the name of increasing mobility rickshaws are being restricted/banned in Dhaka roads, particularly since 2002. The study hypothesis is that the withdrawal of rickshaws from the roads is a manifestation of unjust mobilities in the (transport) planning; devised by biased studies and plans, and fuelled by vested motivations. While short and medium distance travellers, women, school going children and their guardians, aged and sick members of the household and non-work activities are adversely affected by the decision; long distance activities, work trips and car-users are benefitted. This research also reveals a cross-sectoral, informal and productive global to local coalition against NMT in an uneven geography of power relations and multiple interests; which is also contextual and relevant to cities in developing countries in Asia and elsewhere in the globe. Apart from reviewing a broad range of theoretical and empirical literature, the research collected information on individual and household mobility patterns, on the effects of the ban/restriction and on potential modal options and preferences using a combination of questionnaire surveys, semistructured interviews and focus group discussions.

Dhaka the capital city of Bangladesh has merely been nourished with any planning guidelines or stringent development control policy since its inception. As a result, the city has been developed with lots of deprivation resulting in numerous problems such as traffic congestion, water logging, sewerage and drainage problem, water supply, gas and electricity problem, crime, unhygienic environment and many others. The old city of Dhaka (Strategic Planning Zone, SPZ 3), the most densely populated and congested area of the city inhabited by almost a million people, possesses 15% of the total population living in the city’s urbanized area (Urban Area Plan (1995-2005)). Occupying only 7% of the gross built-up area, it exhibits densities well in excess of the normal gross urban densities of 323 ppa, in localised areas with net residential densities in excess of 2000 ppa (Urban Area Plan, 1995-2005). Despite increasing congestion, a paucity of social and community facilities, inadequate and poorly maintained infrastructure and ever-increasing costs for ever-diminishing space, the evidence of existing trends suggests that the old city will experience a continued influx of population and densification well into the future. Various collective initiatives, measures and researches undertaken to address various problems with their tentative remedies have stumbled in various times due to lack of proper institutional set up, non-conformal policy implementation with local settings, lack of community efforts, lack of political stability and the last but not the least, ignoring people’s participation in problem identification, their perception regarding intensity of any particular problem and possible remedies that are likely to be enforceable and preferred by the local inhabitants. Old Dhaka signifies a lot by offering a contrast with the new Dhaka, but the existing situation can never support the future growth unless the old city is brought under long term sustainable policy framework. So an informative study based on the application of participatory methods can reveal an authentic and clear picture reflecting the state of mind and perception of the inhabitants of Old Dhaka regarding the intensity and magnitude of their problems and possible remedies felt by them.

Dhaka city is the home of more than five million and is one of the most densely populated cities of the world. Dhaka City Corporation is responsible for providing various services to its citizen with its limited resources. 'Citizen Report Card' is one of the new methods to measure the performance of civic services provided by urban government. This study used this method to measure the performance of waste management, mosquito control and certification service offered by Dhaka City Corporation in some selected wards of Dhaka City. The performance of each of these services is ranked using The Urban Governance Indicator value. The study concluded that citizen of Dhaka ranked the waste management and certification service as fair while mosquito control service was identified as poor. The paper ended with a discussion on possible improvement of quality of services.

In response to the increased rate of urbanization, RAJUK (Rajdhani Unnnayan Kartripakkhya), a capital development authority in Bangladesh, initiated a project adopting the state-of-the-art spatial approach to growth as a strategy in its capacity as the executive body responsible for the preparation and implementation of the Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan (DMDP). In recognition of the importance of the plan and in order to increase its implementability, public participation was considered one of the most significant features in the DMDP. Further, public participation was considered an inevitable part of the consideration of planning standards, including recommendations at each stage from Structure Plan (SP) to Detail Area Plan (DAP). By nature urban planning is a complex mix of socio-economic and political phenomena which involves many theoretical aspects and at the same time there are associated multifaceted factors in its implementation. In the past there have been many efforts at planning and managing the urban areas in Dhaka, yet in most cases these efforts were focused on planning without consideration of the rapid changes taking place in socioeconomic contexts, the strength and capacity of the public agencies concerned, or of the resources required. This paper is an assessment of the extent of inclusion of the public voice in the form of participation in the DAP, which is a reality on the ground. The DAP is an ongoing project, and based on a survey and interviews in the field this paper is an endeavour to identify the differences between theoretical practices as outlined in the DMDP and the actual situation.