The BNP mayoral candidate for the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) election, Ishraque Hossain, wants to prepare a master plan to rebuild Dhaka south. “If I am elected, I will take steps to prepare a 100-year master plan in consultation with urban planners, stakeholders, foreign experts, and other agents to turn the unplanned city into a planned one,” he said in an exclusive interview with The Independent.

He also said that there was no alternative but to make coordinated efforts to make the city liveable. Ishraque, who is the elder son of the late Sadeque Hossain Khoka, a former mayor of undivided Dhaka city corporation, mentioned that his father had emphasised during a roundtable the need to draw up a 100-year plan to build the city in a planned manner.

He also said he would give priority to ease the traffic management in Dhaka as city life had come to a standstill due to traffic congestion. In this context, Ishraque referred to a survey by the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) that stated the country incurred a loss of Tk. 37,000 crore each year because of loss of working hours due to traffic congestion. He said that a planned city had 25 per cent of areas reserved for roads. But in Dhaka, it was only 7 per cent when his father was the mayor from 2002 to 2011.

Ishraque, who is also a member of the BNP international affairs sub-committee, said priority should be given on mass transportation because roads had not increased in keeping with the increase in number of vehicles. The mayoral aspirant also said initiatives should be taken to decentralise the administration in order to reduce pressure on the city.

He further said he would make his electoral manifesto public in a press conference in accordance with the election code of conduct as well as in line with BNP’s other mayoral candidate for Dhaka North. He claimed that holding a free and fair election was not possible under a partisan government.

He said that government institutions, including the Election Commission, are subservient to the head of the state and so he did not harbour any hopes from them.

“Despite this, we will remain in the election field for the sake of democracy and to launch movement to free party chairperson Khaleda Zia,” he added.

The BNP leader, however, said that he would win the DSCC mayoral election with a big margin of votes “if the election is held in a free and fair manner”.

He blamed the reluctance of the city corporation in spreading effective medicines on a regular basis as a major reason behind the increase of the mosquito menace.

“It is important to spray effective medicines throughout the year to destroy the mosquito larvae to end the spread of the mosquito. Besides, public awareness programmes should be continued through the year,” he observed.

On Saturday, BNP had nominated Ishraque Hossain and Tabith Awal as the mayoral candidates for the forthcoming polls to Dhaka South and Dhaka North city corporations, respectively. The civic polls would be held on January 30.