He said work on preparing master plans for every city corporation and district in the country is under way with the aim of sustainable urbanisation. Alongside plans to build secondary townships around Dhaka, the Urban Development Directorate has, for the first time, adopted a 10-year plan. Starting from metropolitan cities, this plan will gradually be extended to the upazila level.
He made these remarks on Sunday as chief guest at a seminar titled "Introducing a Uniform Spatial Planning System in Bangladesh", organised by the Urban Development Directorate (UDD) under the Ministry of Housing and Public Works at the conference room of the Department of Architecture in Segunbagicha, Dhaka, on the occasion of World Town Planning Day 2026.
He also said the 'Spatial Planning Act, 2026' has been formulated giving priority to sustainable development, economic growth, biodiversity conservation, climate and disaster resilience, and protection of agriculture and the environment. Under this law, the Urban Development Directorate will prepare national and regional spatial plans as well as a policy framework.
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The seminar was chaired by Md. Obaidur Rahman, Secretary of the Ministry of Housing and Public Works, with State Minister for Housing and Public Works Ahmed Sohel Manzur as special guest. The welcome address was given by Dr. Md. Mahmud Ali, Director (Additional Secretary) of the Urban Development Directorate.
The keynote discussion at the seminar noted that currently various agencies — including RAJUK, CDA, KDA, RDA, CoxDA, LGED, city corporations and UDD — are preparing spatial plans under their own legal bases and terms of reference (ToR). However, there are differences in the agencies' final outputs, climate and disaster risk strategies, land use, map scales and data formats. To resolve this crisis, the Urban Development Directorate has prepared a proposal for a 'Uniform Spatial Planning System', which will bring uniformity to all agencies' survey types, data quality, map scales, land-use classifications and approval processes.
The Urban Development Directorate has set a target of preparing spatial plans for the nation and all districts of the country by 2035.