Bangla Press Desk: Gulshan Society President Barrister Omar Sadat has said Dhaka has undergone "urban hell" rather than urbanisation over the past two decades, blaming poor planning and inadequate infrastructure for the city's deteriorating condition.
Speaking at an event, he said Dhaka had become one of the world's worst cities to live in and stressed that restoring the capital would require sustained efforts.
"Over the past 20 years, urbanisation has turned into urban hell. Dhaka is finished. It is now among the world's three worst cities. Bringing the city back to a liveable state is a huge responsibility for the administration. It cannot be achieved overnight," he said.
He added that the prime minister had formed a committee under her leadership to clean up Gulshan Lake.
"You will be surprised to know that a city like Dhaka has no proper sewerage planning. In most areas, sewage lines discharge directly into the lake," he said.
Calling for collective action, Sadat said coordinated efforts from all stakeholders were essential to develop Gulshan into a model neighbourhood.
His remarks came in the wake of the 2026 Global Liveability Index published by the research arm of the Economist Group, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), which ranked Dhaka as the world's third least liveable city.
According to the index, Dhaka ranked 171st out of 173 cities with an overall score of 42 out of 100. The war-ravaged cities of Damascus and Tripoli occupied the bottom two positions.
The index assesses cities based on stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. Cities scoring above 80 are considered acceptable places to live, while those scoring below 40 are classified as intolerable.
Dhaka scored 45 for stability, 42 for healthcare, 41 for culture and environment, 67 for education -- the city's highest-rated category -- and only 27 for infrastructure, its lowest score. The capital retained the same overall ranking as in the previous year's index.
