Dhaka costlier than Washington for expats, costliest in S Asia

[Bilal9]

Up until 1990s, Dhaka's infrastructure was quite ahead than the rest of South Asia. The newly built Kurmitola Airport (Zia International Airport as it was called then) in the early 80s was the most modern in the region, so much that Dhaka became a transit hub for many passengers travelling between East Asia and Europe.

The problem is, while other countries invested heavily on urban infrastructural development, Dhaka stagnated, probably because rural development was prioritized in Bangladesh since the 1990s. It is also a little unfair to compare Dhaka with other cities to be honest, the challenges faced by Dhaka is enormous. Still though, Dhaka remains ahead on economic/financial terms than other South Asian cities, barring Mumbai.

On topic: This shouldn't be a surprise. Check the rankings, Dhaka stands at 40 while Kolkata at 181. Now you know why people flock to India for shopping or medical treatment. It is far more cheaper for someone say from Satkhira to travel to Kolkata, stay there for a week, get treated and do some shopping than doing the same things in Dhaka.

There are a couple of factors pulling down Dhaka's quality of living, which are,

a. Inordinate and inconsiderate pressure on Dhaka as a destination for education and employment due to limited opportunities elsewhere. Everyone in Bangladesh wanting to live in Dhaka due to centralized govt., and,

b. The Rajuk idiots allowing industry to be opened in Dhaka, with all the adjoining problems (slums etc.) putting pressure on the infrastructure.

You can't have industry located in a major capital city in any halfway civilized country. Look at Islamabad, look at Naypyidaw. Look at other Capital cities which moved to a second capital. Dhaka's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar was going to be a second capital, but they turned that into another bazaar with lax code enforcement on setbacks. They are trying now with Agargaon and moving govt. offices there, we will see what happens. But ultimately you need govt. offices in a separate city like Islamabad.

In Dhaka's case all the RAJUK idiots who took bribes and gave permissions to situate garments factories in Dhaka needed to be shot. It ruined the quality of life in the whole city.

Not only that, these RAJUK uneducated Suwars have no concept of vehicle lane width, feeder road provision, building setbacks (distance of boundary from the main roads), in fact no clue on what makes a modern city or main thoroughfare, to handle traffic growth.

Look at Jakarta, I bet this main road in Jakarta was not designed recently (at least 40/50 years ago) and look at how efficient the movement of traffic is (and they even kept a provision of BRT in the middle island). This was designed at a time Indonesian GDP per capita was probably not very much higher than ours. This is the difference between the vision of educated civilized people of Indonesia and us in Bangladesh.

Education is such a precious thing, and compare the video below to what uneducated RAJUK morons in Dhaka are designing for you and me...sigh. Yes even in newer parts like Purbachal and Jolshiri....

 

[bluesky]

In Dhaka's case all the RAJUK idiots who took bribes and gave permissions to situate garments factories in Dhaka needed to be shot. It ruined the quality of life in the whole city.

RAZUK's decision can also be reversed. Raise the Holding or property taxes of the factory and other undesirable plots to an extent that the garments factories would find it lucrative to sell their plots at high prices and move to other cheaper places.

I have watched similar things happened in Tokyo. The Tokyo govt wanted to get rid of thousands of small eateries or small houses and beautify the City with new roads, boulevards, and apartment houses.

The govt just raised the property taxes and the small owners were forced to sell the plots to the Real Estate companies. The Banks supported the move by extending loans to the RE companies.

However, all were with the connivance of the GoJ. But, it produced a Bubble Economy that lasted for about a decade. BD is in a Bubble Economy but without giving benefits to the people. Selling of plots may cause the land price to fall, hopefully.

 

[Imran Khan]

i dont know CHAANA CHUUR is this much expensive

 

[Bilal9]

RAZUK's decision can also be reversed. Raise the Holding or property taxes of the factory and other undesirable plots to an extent that the garments factories would find it lucrative to sell their plots at high prices and move to other cheaper places.

I have watched similar things happened in Tokyo. The Tokyo govt wanted to get rid of thousands of small eateries or small houses and beautify the City with new roads, boulevards, and apartment houses.

The govt just raised the property taxes and the small owners were forced to sell the plots to the Real Estate companies. The Banks supported the move by extending loans to the RE companies.

However, all were with the connivance of the GoJ. But, it produced a Bubble Economy that lasted for about a decade. BD is in a Bubble Economy but without giving benefits to the people. Selling of plots may cause the land price to fall, hopefully.

Excellent idea @bluesky bhai. Now all we have left to do is convince NBR and maybe the PM herself.

These garments factories on both sides of the expressways and flyovers are an eye sore....

Need to have some "gentrification" happen in Dhaka in some neighborhoods too.

Residential neighborhoods turning into commercial property, like that in Banani, Dhanmondi, and even in Gulshan nowadays. Greed is the only reason.

 

[itsanufy]

Bhalo na lagley aishen na Dada. Walaikum Tafat.

Ki korbo bhai, ardhangini ke nia Dakhay jete hoy.

Your giant lakes (BIL) are the most beautiful, the CHT hill tracts, BD is extremely beautiful in monsoon. If you can promote tourism in a proper way you can earn a lot of foreign money.

Nobody is feeling proud here. But we need to remember that, this cost of living is for the western expats, not the ordinary citizen of Bangladesh living in Dhaka. A western expat need personal automobile(BMW, Volkswagen) and he need to sip on foreign quality wine at morning and evening, he also need to visit night clubs. Now this is were Dhaka is not good at. Personal automobile is prohibitively expensive in Bangladesh, by the factor of 4 or 5 of price in western countries. Wine is even more expensive, like 10 times the normal price. Night club rarely exist in Dhaka only in the diplomatic zone, again very expensive. These three item is more than enough to screw Dhaka is any cost of living comparison.

But if you can live likes a local, Dhaka is not that expensive. Dhaka's rent price is lower, dining and restaurants price is cheaper than major Indian cities bar probably Kolkata. Grocery price is comparable, clothes, shoes are cheaper. You will need less money in Dhaka to pursue higher education for yourself or admitting your children to quality schools. So it depends on who are spending here and what are the requirements.

I agree on all what you said.
I have first hand experience, I am a jamai of BD.

 

[itsanufy]

Depends where in Dhaka you lived. If you stayed in some cheap neighborhood you have my sympathies.

Rent of a 2 bed flat in Gulshan is near to 1 L BDT. It is insane and super rich can afford that.
I normally stay in Uttara where my in laws stays. It is decent locality and I like it.
But I must say Dhaka needs to improve a lot on infrastructure

 

[SpaceMan18]

Rent of a 2 bed flat in Gulshan is near to 1 L BDT. It is insane and super rich can afford that.
I normally stay in Uttara where my in laws stays. It is decent locality and I like it.
But I must say Dhaka needs to improve a lot on infrastructure

Dhaka sucks lmao , it's like they blindfolded a child and gave it buildings and asked it to place it anywhere it wanted. Shitty infrastructure ,sewage system and no urban planning led to the mess called Dhaka. The city urgently needs to decentralize

 

[Indus Pakistan]

Islamabad comes surprisingly almost at the bottom but that city is one of the best places to live in the world. While I have not been to India or BD but I have seen most of Europe etc. Islamabad is just fantastic. What really makes the city one of the world'sa greats is in July you can be basking in 40 degrees and then 30 miles on the Murree Expressway your at altitude above 5,000 ft and it feels like your in Northern Europe at low 20 degrees. A few miles further and you can feel your in Swiss Alps and this is about 40 minutes from centre of Islamabad.

To add to this you can drive in glorious Hazara along the Hazara Expressway which at begining feels your in Italy and then slowly changes to Austria. Islamabad is the best kept secret you guys can imagine.

Sorry for going off tangent but could not help it after I see the city almost at the bottom of the list ...

 

[Bilal9]

i dont know CHAANA CHUUR is this much expensive

Obviously you are unaware about Dhaka's restaurant scene, what is offered and how much it costs. Dhaka I'd say right now tops most of subcontinent (except maybe a few select places in Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore) in variety of fare offered, the quality of the offerings and of course decor.

Prices are reasonable. However cheesy cheap these places are not. Good value for money.

I include a few middling price reasonable restaurants in Dhaka (that are available to the public, no invitation required), please let me know if you find any Chanachur in the cuisine offered below.

Elements Global Dining (American, European cuisine, Tk.4500/$55 per person prix fixe buffet dinner)

Prego (Italian cuisine, about Tk.4000/$50 per person prix fixe buffet dinner)

SEAR (Mediterranean, European, Entrees range in price from $100~$140 - Tk.8500~Tk.12000)

SUBLIME (Steak Place, they specialize in Blackmore Wagyu steak and Veal Tenderloin, probably around Tk.5000 or USD60 per person),

Balsamic Poached Veal tenderloin

Blackmore Wagyu Steak (Australian bred Mishima Wagyu stock)

Foie Gras Lobster

Tea smoked Venison

Baked Chicken en-croute

Islamabad comes surprisingly almost at the bottom but that city is one of the best places to live in the world. While I have not been to India or BD but I have seen most of Europe etc. Islamabad is just fantastic. What really makes the city one of the world'sa greats is in July you can be basking in 40 degrees and then 30 miles on the Murree Expressway your at altitude above 5,000 ft and it feels like your in Northern Europe at low 20 degrees. A few miles further and you can feel your in Swiss Alps and this is about 40 minutes from centre of Islamabad.

To add to this you can drive in glorious Hazara along the Hazara Expressway which at begining feels your in Italy and then slowly changes to Austria. Islamabad is the best kept secret you guys can imagine.

Sorry for going off tangent but could not help it after I see the city almost at the bottom of the list ...

Well why don't we open it up to tourism, especially tourism from Bangladesh. I'm sure there will be a few takers. You can limit tourism to escorted tours if security is a concern.

 

[bluesky]

Obviously you are unaware about Dhaka's restaurant scene, what is offered and how much it costs. Dhaka I'd say right now tops most of subcontinent (except maybe a few select places in Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore) in variety of fare offered, the quality of the offerings and of course decor.

Prices are reasonable. However cheesy cheap these places are not. Good value for money.

I include a few middling price reasonable restaurants in Dhaka (that are available to the public, no invitation required), please let me know if you find any Chanachur in the cuisine offered below.

Elements Global Dining (American, European cuisine, Tk.4500/$55 per person prix fixe buffet dinner)

Prego (Italian cuisine, about Tk.4000/$50 per person prix fixe buffet dinner)

SEAR (Mediterranean, European, Entrees range in price from $100~$140 - Tk.8500~Tk.12000)

SUBLIME (Steak Place, they specialize in Blackmore Wagyu steak and Veal Tenderloin, probably around Tk.5000 or USD60 per person),

Balsamic Poached Veal tenderloin

Blackmore Wagyu Steak (Australian bred Mishima Wagyu stock)

Foie Gras Lobster

Tea smoked Venison

Baked Chicken en-croute

Well why don't we open it up to tourism, especially tourism from Bangladesh. I'm sure there will be a few takers. You can limit tourism to escorted tours if security is a concern.

The pictures above show what a foreigner or a rich Bangladeshi can expect to eat in hi-fi restaurants in Dhaka. Although these are not the common menu for consumption by common people like me, however, the kitchens and halls show how the Dhaka modern eateries have upgraded themselves with European cuisines.

However, I believe all the restaurants you have shown are inside International hotels.

High-quality restaurants are needed to change the typical local eating mindset as well as the image of the country.

 

[bluesky]

Excellent idea @bluesky bhai. Now all we have left to do is convince NBR and maybe the PM herself.

These garments factories on both sides of the expressways and flyovers are an eye sore....

Need to have some "gentrification" happen in Dhaka in some neighborhoods too.

Residential neighborhoods turning into commercial property, like that in Banani, Dhanmondi, and even in Gulshan nowadays. Greed is the only reason.

Commercial holdings must be forced to move out from the residential areas and make ways for the Real Estate companies to buy the properties and build apartment houses facilitated with all modern amenities.

This is how the residential land prices go down.

Dhaka should discard the one plot/ one house formula in many localities because the land is in short supply. An apartment building can house, say, 25 families, a detached house on the same plot can only house 5 families.

The municipal govt must also enact laws that give it the power to acquire/ purchase a portion of the lands for this purpose. This is also how children's parks are built and roads/ streets get wider.

This is how a city becomes more lively and livable.

 

[bluesky]

I agree on all what you said.
I have first hand experience, I am a jamai of BD.

To all BD guys, please note that @itsanufy is our Jamai. So, we must respect him as one of our own. No insult, please!!!

 

[Species]

There are a couple of factors pulling down Dhaka's quality of living, which are,

a. Inordinate and inconsiderate pressure on Dhaka as a destination for education and employment due to limited opportunities elsewhere. Everyone in Bangladesh wanting to live in Dhaka due to centralized govt., and,

b. The Rajuk idiots allowing industry to be opened in Dhaka, with all the adjoining problems (slums etc.) putting pressure on the infrastructure.

You can't have industry located in a major capital city in any halfway civilized country. Look at Islamabad, look at Naypyidaw. Look at other Capital cities which moved to a second capital. Dhaka's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar was going to be a second capital, but they turned that into another bazaar with lax code enforcement on setbacks. They are trying now with Agargaon and moving govt. offices there, we will see what happens. But ultimately you need govt. offices in a separate city like Islamabad.

In Dhaka's case all the RAJUK idiots who took bribes and gave permissions to situate garments factories in Dhaka needed to be shot. It ruined the quality of life in the whole city.

Not only that, these RAJUK uneducated Suwars have no concept of vehicle lane width, feeder road provision, building setbacks (distance of boundary from the main roads), in fact no clue on what makes a modern city or main thoroughfare, to handle traffic growth.

Look at Jakarta, I bet this main road in Jakarta was not designed recently (at least 40/50 years ago) and look at how efficient the movement of traffic is (and they even kept a provision of BRT in the middle island). This was designed at a time Indonesian GDP per capita was probably not very much higher than ours. This is the difference between the vision of educated civilized people of Indonesia and us in Bangladesh.

Education is such a precious thing, and compare the video below to what uneducated RAJUK morons in Dhaka are designing for you and me...sigh. Yes even in newer parts like Purbachal and Jolshiri....

Building a new capital is a must, Dhaka just won't be able to sustain so much pressure no matter how many MRTs or flyovers they build. And I mean building an entire capital city out of scratch like Islamabad, out of Dhaka. I'm surprised there is no concrete proposal yet for this purpose. There have been few opinion pieces written about this but nothing serious.

 

[bluesky]

Building a new capital is a must, Dhaka just won't be able to sustain so much pressure no matter how many MRTs or flyovers they build. And I mean building an entire capital city out of scratch like Islamabad, out of Dhaka. I'm surprised there is no concrete proposal yet for this purpose. There have been few opinion pieces written about this but nothing serious.

Pray, tell us where to build a new Capital, how many billions of dollars to spend, and where from the money will come?

Bangladesh remains a poor country. so, it is wiser to adopt a policy of moving out the industries, instead. With this and the implementation of MetroRail, Dhaka will be more speedy. After the MR starts operation, you will see a lesser number of people on the streets.

Once the bus services are systematized it will also help alleviate the crowd on the roads. I suggest, most of the bus services start from an MR station and moves through a non-MR route that ends at any other MR station.

This is how people in between any two stations can travel. You can be sure that good bus services and MR operations will automatically reduce the number of Rickshaws and three-wheelers.

And, more and more people will be using personal motorbikes, MR trains and Buses for daily commuting. Dhaka has a large 21 million population but it does not have the correct infrastructure to transport even 5,000,000 commuters now.

 

[Michael Corleone]

@bluesky bhai Black Money white korar babostha korsey. Stock Exchange investments. They will charge heavy rate of interest though. This may not be bad in the long run and will stimulate the economy.

Maybe the dorbesh is doing it but majority are using old school methods.
if I were them I would buy tons of monero and sit on it. There’s no govt. that could seize my coins or figure out how much I laundered