Extent of the Planning Area

Area under the jurisdiction of the Dacca Improvement Trust considers a part of the grate plain of the Ganges and Brahmaputra delta. It is approximately 220 square miles, 23 miles from north to south and 20 miles east to west. The area centers on Dacca, nine miles to the southeast. On the south, west and east, bounded by the rivers Dhaleswari, Turag, Balu and Lakhya. On the north by Tungi Khal. Extent of the Trust’s area is shown on key Plan 1.

The present population is approximately 10, 25,000 persons, of which 575,000 live in Dacca City and 100,000 in Narayanganj. Remaining 350,000 lives in the surrounding rural areas.

Planning proposal for the improvement Trust’s area presents in diagrammatic on the 1: 20,000 scale plan. More detail proposals for Dacca city and its envious shown on the 1:3960 scale plan. Also supplements by small scale, diagrammatic plans in the report itself. Large-scale plans for Narayanganj not prepared as they were not part of the instructions. Outline proposals for the Narayanganj  describes separately in chapter 12.

Preparation of Master Plan: Major assumptions

In preparing the master plan, it decides how far to accept existing conditions and what major assumptions could be made about the future. If the whole of old Dacca, for example, could be swept away, and the planner had a clear field on which to work, he would present proposals differing radically from those he would present on the basis of the present town remaining. Following major assumptions consider ion such aspects:

The river Burhi Ganga, as a transport artery, will continue to play an important part in the economic life of Dacca.

No-substantial alleviation of the annual flooding, which occurs during the monsoon season, will be possible.

The central area of Dacca (the old town) will maintain as the principal business and shopping center, particularly for small-scale enterprises.

Existing population will continue to increase at the rate of approximately per year.

Southwestern loop of the railway through Dacca will divert eastwards, with a new Dacca station at Kamalapur.

Part of the university will move to a new site of about 1,000 acres at Faydabad.

Dacca Cantonment, extending for some six miles northwards from Dacca along the Mymensingh Road, now occupying approximately 6,840 acres of mostly high land, will retain for military use and extends. Similarly, it will be necessary to retain the East Pakistan rifles Cantonment.