At present the main problem RAJUK is facing is the shortage of manpower, says K. A. M. Haroon, Chairman of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK). Haroon, who is an additional secretary to the government, has been holding the key post since February 2006. The total number of approved posts in RAJUK is 1040 but now only 647 persons are working, which means 393 posts are vacant.

"My first priority is to complete Detailed Area Plan of Dhaka City by June 2008, so that the Development Control is exerted for a planned future Dhaka City as per Master Plan," says Haroon. But RAJUK cannot recruit new people to fill in the vacancies as more than 40 writ petitions lodged by the terminated staffs of RAJUK are pending in the High Court. "However, RAJUK is trying to vacate the injunction of those writ petitions."

As part of making the organization more efficient, Haroon informs ET that RAJUK has already taken massive steps to computerize its departments. It has built LAN and also made some application of software. The employees have been going through training to operate the software efficiently. Appx. 18000 data entry has been completed for the purpose of entering the old and new data. RAJUK has been offered Expression of Interest (EOI) for making digital archiving of Gulshan, Banani and Baridhara Model Town in the primary stage. Also, it regularly updates its website and provides notices of tenders, advertisements, among other activities. Computerization & Management Information System (MIS) in RAJUK is under construction.

Responding to the allegation that RAJUK is slow and inefficient in approving building plans Haroon says, "As per the provision of Dhaka Moha Nagar Emarat Nirman Bedhemala 2007, plans should be approved within 45 days from the date of submission of the application. But in most cases the documents (information, plan drawings etc.) submitted by the applicants are found defective or incomplete. Hence it takes time to collect the relevant information from the applicants. Also as I said before, there are acute shortages of manpower." RAJUK has published a Citizen charter to make its activities more transparent to the people and is trying to modify its organogram to overcome manpower shortage, adds Haroon.

Through a Gazette notification on the 15th November, 2006 the government of Bangladesh made a regulation known as Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC). It covers all aspects related to the construction of safe and environmental friendly buildings. It contains

(a) general building requirement control and regulation
(b) fire protection
(c) building materials
(d) structural design
(e)construction practices and safety
(f) building services
(g)alteration, addition to andchange of use of existing building etc.

Following Building Construction Act of 1952 and BNBC the government of Bangladesh has made another rule Dhaka Moha Nagar Emarat Nirman Bedhemala 2007 which contains rules relating to construction of building.

The chairman informs ET that to provide one stop service to customers RAJUK has formed a one window service cell comprising 20 members from different organizations including RAJUK, WASA, DESA, Dept. of Environment, Fire Service and Civil defense under the provision contained in the Dhaka Moha Nagar Emarat Nirman Bedhemala 2007. He admits that although formed in June 2007, the one window cell is not functioning properly because of the existing acts, rules and regulations of different organizations. The matter is under active consideration of Nagar Unnayan Kartipakkha.

Haroon acknowledges that effective monitoring during construction is essential so that building owners are compelled to construct buildings as per approved drawings. He claims that RAJUK has intensified its monitoring activities. As part of this activity, RAJUK maintains a visiting register in which building inspectors write down their visiting observations and submit it to the higher authorities for taking appropriate action against the owners of the buildings being constructed if they violate the approved plan. However he says again due to acute shortage of manpower the progress in this regard is not up to the mark.

For the last one year RAJUK has been very strict with illegal constructions in the country. Approximately 600 illegal or deviated structures have been fully or partially demolished. In most cases the deviation was making constructions in the car parking areas of high rise buildings for other purposes. But the recent tragedy in the Rangs building, where some workers died when demolishing parts of the building, calls for RAJUK seeking expert opinion and taking all the safety measures before undertaking such work..

"RAJUK wants to make Dhaka city a better place to live," maintains Haroon. He informs ET that playgrounds, parks and other community facilities are being included in different projects of RAJUK. "Playgrounds, parks, lakes, water bodies etc. will be earmarked in the Detailed Area Plan (DAP) of Dhaka City."

Upcoming projects of RAJUK Government financing projects (current): (a) Construction of link road from Ramna Stargate to Janapath (b) Integrated Development of Hatirjheel Area to Tejgaon Industrial Area. (c) Extension of Bijoy Sarani towards East up to Tejgaon Industrial Area. (d) Development of Gulshan-Baridhara and Gulshan -Banani Lake. Self financing projects (current): (a) Development of Residential area beside the Dhaka-Maoa Road for the low and middle income group of people. (b) Purbachal New town Project (c) Uttara Residential Model Town (3rd Phase) Project. Self financing s (new): (a) Computerization and Management Information System in Rajuk (b) Construction of Multistoried Car parking Cum Office Building within the RAJUK's Jurisdiction Area (Phase-1)

To solve the problem of unavailability of low cost housing RAJUK has proposed earmarking some land for high-rise buildings in the lay-out plan of its Uttara 3rd Phase, Purbachal and Jhilmil projects.