No war, no terror, still Dhaka the worst

Being in a better position than the three worst cities -Damascus in Syria, Lagos in Nigeria, Tripoli in Libya- Dhaka is the fourth least livable one in the world among 140 in this year’s Global Livability Index with a score of 38.7 out of 100.

But in another consideration it can be said that Dhaka is the worst city in the world because the other three cities behind it are facing war or war-like situations.

There is no war in Bangladesh. Not even any remarkable agitation took place in Dhaka in last four years. 

The Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Liveability Report 2017 ranked 140 cities across 30 factors involving stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

The top five livable cities were Melbourne in Australia, Vienna in Austria, and Canada’s Vancouver and Toronto.  The fifth position was jointly secured by another Canadian city, Calgary, and Adelaide in Australia.

Now huge development works are going on in the city. We never saw such development projects in the history of the city. On the other hand, we never saw such a bad condition of the city during this rainy session.

Pot-holed roads with unrelenting digging, always in the busy hours of the day, have rendered pedestrian or traffic movement impossible at places. Not only the main roads, but also the lanes and by-lanes have become death-traps due to non-repair.

The city has now a good number of flyovers. But the roads and highways below turn to veritable rivers after rain. Cars run on the flyovers and boats ply below.

The problem now is that the city dwellers are perilously trapped in a state of helplessness. No one can tell for sure when development projects will be completed.

Projects are missing deadlines repeatedly. Deadlines for completing most projects are extended four to six times. It also increases the project costs. However, it is the common people who are the ultimate sufferers.-SAA