Critical Review of Street Connectivity Between Tejgaon Industrial Area and Adjacent Hatirjheel Development

Abstract

Tejgaon’s development process was initiated in the 1950s by the Department of Public Works (PWD) as an industrial zone and it was also indicate in the first master plan of Dhaka (1959). In1968, Tejgaon was designed as light industrial area by the Dhaka Improvement Trust (DIT). After Liberation war in 1971 Tejgaon become the most sought after place for industrial activity for not only its being on the outskirts of the than city center but also for the rising demand for the growing population of Dhaka. Several residential areas were developed beyond Tejgaon industrial areas (TIA) resulting in the rapid transformation of land use at this point into a mixed use development changing the physical characteristics of TIA. Responding to this transformation, the Government of Bangladesh has decided to develop Tejgaon industrial area as commercial cum residential hub. At the same time low lying areas i.e. Hatirjheel area on the south of TIA was developed to connect the northern residential areas (beyond TIA) with the older urban core. TIA thus came in between Hatirjheel development and Northern residential areas as such requiring rethinking of the street connectivity in the area. Transformation of TIA and the development of Hatirjheel provides an opportunity to rethink about the connectivity of road network. This study critically reviews the street connectivity between TIA and the adjacent new Hatirjheel development. It is identified that the new Hatirjheel development did not take note of the older TIA road network thus creating problem of urban mobility and integration. This study aims at identifying the street connectivity by quantitative and qualitative method using tools like Depthmapx10 to understand the new dynamics and suggest measures for better urban mobility.