The corridor : a pilot project on an incremental social housing, Navaron, Jhikargacha, Jessore.

Abstract

The Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh funded the current the project with Urban Development Directorate, under the Ministry of Housing and Public Works as the executing agency.The project is managed, monitored and evaluated by UDD at the field level. The Technical Management Committee (TMC) at Organization level is responsible for looking into the technical and coordination aspects, where the Inter-ministerial Steering Committee is responsible for guiding the project towards its goal. The activities of the project are expected to be completed by June 2016. Bhatiapara‐Norail‐Jessore‐Benapole National Highway (Corridor road) project has been at the national priority list since 2007 which is to be constructed by Roads and Highways Department. The 20,557 kilometer long Asian Highway 1 will be started from Japan and pass through Korea, china, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar; then through India it will enter into Bangladesh using this corridor (N706 Road). Currently lowest average household size is 4.0. Family size will continue reducing responding to the socioeconomic change. But this change takes a long time to manifest its impact. Assuming that the average family size will be 3.9, total number of required housing units will be 204236. By the year 2030, total deficit of housing units will be (204236-126679=) 77557. This many housing units will need to be created mostly in the already urbanized areas. Fortunately, most of the residential areas of the project area have very low density. Meaning the existing residential areas would be able to consume more people in the next couple of years providing enough time to be prepared for the future. Following the increasing friendly political ties with India, it is expected that the bilateral trade, 3 economic activities of the project area, industrialization and cross‐border activities will increase significantly. This will create tremendous impact on the project area. Among many expected impacts, following can be easily comprehended‐  per capita income will increase,  new employment opportunities will be created,  migration pressure will emerge,  rapid land use change along the major roads coupled with environmental deterioration will be very rampant,  intensity of the land use will suddenly increase  pressure on the existing utilities and services will become quite severe,  traffic congestion and traffic related causality and pollution may increase and most importantly  the current inhabitants of the project area may find it difficult to cope with sudden change. The major obstacle of decentralization of a nation’s development from the capital to elsewhere is the very economic system that it deals with. In the context of Navaron, Jhikargacha, Jessore the obstacle remains the same. The market ideology needs to evolve in order to make a grand shift in the composition of a country. Dhaka has surpassed it’s density limit 20 years ago. From political, educational, medical to an overall sense of any kind of marketplace has got clogged overtime. The centralized economic base and commodity marketplace attracts people from all over the country in the hope of a better financial and survival opportunity. The pilot project at Navaron, Jhikargacha on the banks of Kapotakkha river was an initiative to imitate the life and lifestyle of a second city. In a nutshell, the thesis was an attempt to understand social housing prospects and livelihood development aspects of an incremental social growth in the context of corridor planning development project.