Osmani Udyan sits between the Secretariat and Nagar Bhaban in the heart of capital Dhaka. Once, it offered the city a sanctuary. In the early hours, residents walked and exercised in the clean air; by afternoon, every corner stirred with casual gatherings and children at play. For countless inhabitants, it was a daily escape from the strain of urban life — a protected green refuge.
Today, however, it embodies the plight of Dhaka’s open parks. The grounds have been closed to the public for an extended period. In the name of development, infrastructure has steadily encroached and the green expanse has shrunk.
A recent visit found a parking lot now occupying one section of the park. The main grounds remain off-limits. Inside, workers are laying concrete and erecting new structures. The work has largely ruined the park’s natural setting.
The story is much the same across Dhaka. Some parks now serve as cheap eateries, others as food courts, garages, markets or truck stands. Green spaces are vanishing one by one, squeezing opportunities for sports, exercise and leisure.
Urban planners say a park’s essential purpose is to provide rest, walking and recreation in an open green environment. Yet commercial and infrastructural uses are steadily overtaking many of the capital’s parks and fields.
A section of Agargaon Park has been occupied by an eatery.
The same dynamic is unfolding in Agargaon, opposite the National Museum of Science and Technology. Authorities demolished an illegal school building last year to make way for a modern park, a library and a public toilet. Work began apace. But an administrative reshuffle halted construction. Today, the buildings meant for the library and toilet serve as a low-cost canteen, a car garage and caretaker’s quarters. Local residents are increasingly doubtful the project will ever be completed.
Gulistan’s Shaheed Matiur Park has met a similar fate. Leased ostensibly for park management, it now operates as a car parking area. Thousands of hawkers store their pushcarts there at night; by day the site becomes a parking ground for motorcycles and private cars. Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) itself has built shops on a portion of the park, directly occupying part of the land.
Dhupkhola field, one of Dhaka South’s primary open spaces, now faces a market construction scheme that has stirred local anger. Meanwhile, pillars of the elevated expressway now stand over Panthakunj Park, after years of protest failed to halt the project. Environmentalists allege the construction has permanently damaged a vital green area of the capital.
Beside Dhanmondi’s Kalabagan field, a waste transfer station has been erected. Residents say the field itself remains open, but the stench and other problems have made it unfit for sport or leisure.
Old Dhaka’s historic Bahadur Shah Park (Victoria Park) has also been virtually overrun by DSCC’s lease commerce. Food courts inside the park have squeezed walking space to a minimum. Locals have long demanded their removal, arguing that even this small park has been stripped of public open space by commercial structures.
Urban planners stress that parks and open spaces are not luxuries in a densely populated city. They are essential infrastructure for public health, the environment and overall liveability. Development, they argue, must not destroy greenery or erode the fundamental character of a park. Otherwise, open green spaces for future generations will contract even further in this concrete-bound city.
The government has announced new parks but remains silent on restoring existing ones, according to Dr Adil Mohammed Khan, executive director of the Institute of Planning & Development (IPD). He told Bonik Barta: “What’s astonishing is that the government is entirely silent on restoring existing fields and parks. Yet their election manifesto promised restoration. We saw the same pattern under the interim government — hundreds of protests, countless decisions, but nothing on Dhaka’s parks and open spaces. The interim government didn’t open a single open space to the public. The current government is taking no effective action either.”
Part of Mohammadpur Trikon Park has been converted into a waste management facility.
The pattern is evident across the capital. Behind Mohammadpur Town Hall Market, an open plot owned by the National Housing Authority (NHA) had long served as a park. After residents called for its beautification, former Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Annisul Huq discussed the matter with architects. But the opportunity then slipped away under the interim government. NHA has now launched a housing project on the site. Mirpur’s Kalshi field, another public open space, has also been taken over by NHA. The J Block field in Baridhara, under DNCC, has sat neglected for years. The open ground in this upscale neighbourhood now operates as a garage for trucks, vans and rickshaws.
At Mohammadpur Trikon Park, opposite Town Hall, a city corporation waste management centre occupies part of the field. A visit saw children playing alongside it and an office room sitting inside the grounds. The same picture emerges at Tajmahal Park and Shyamoli Park. Locals complain these spaces have long gone untended.
Banani C-Block Park now hosts a public toilet. A few children’s rides remain, all broken. Anwara Udyan in Farmgate has remained closed for years. Behind Karwan Bazar, a DNCC-listed park has served as a waste dump for years.
Professor Akter Mahmud of Jahangirnagar University’s Urban and Regional Planning (URP) department blames the dire state of Dhaka’s parks on a lack of government will. “Only a handful of parks in elite areas have survived, and even those are not open to the public,” he told Bonik Barta. “Elsewhere, the fields that exist are practically unusable. They are occupied by food stalls, rickshaw garages and truck stands. Many areas have no field or park at all.”
Balur Math on Mirpur Mazar Road once rang with children’s play. Over the past few years, rickshaw, motorcycle and car garages have swallowed roughly half the ground.
At Mirpur 12, Harun Mollah Eidgah Park and playground — known locally as Lalmath — presents another picture of neglect. A WASA pump sits unprotected in a western corner; several large open drains scar the western edge.
Architect Iqbal Habib, vice-president of the Safety Awareness Foundation, says the lack of usable parks is fuelling a rise in device addiction among children and drug use among young people. “It’s the government’s responsibility to secure fields and parks for all — children, young people and the elderly — but it has retreated from that duty,” he told Bonik Barta. “As a result, children and young people can’t play, and the elderly have nowhere to walk. Diabetes, heart disease, obesity, device addiction and drug addiction have consequently surged across all age groups in Dhaka. In the interest of public health and a liveable city, we must urgently reclaim these spaces from encroachment and make them usable.”
In Mirpur’s Ward 9, the four-acre Golartek Math — DNCC’s largest playing field — has been partly seized by Darus Salam Police Station. Since its construction, the station has dumped seized vehicles there: more than fifty trucks, buses, CNG auto-rickshaws, minibuses, private cars, pickup vans, lagunas, motorcycles and rickshaws.
When contacted, Dhaka South City Corporation Administrator Md Abdus Salam told Bonik Barta: “We are working on the fields and parks. We have submitted the list of fields to the sports ministry. The parks are also in the process of being freed from encroachment. Some parks are closed due to ongoing development work.”