Sylhet - Cityscapes and Landmarks

[m_c_hotmail_uk]

wonderful video of sylhet city from merlin tower shows pretty much all highrise
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKr-s...eature=related

[mirzazeehan]

Originally Posted by m_c_hotmail_uk

wonderful video of sylhet city from merlin tower shows pretty much all highrise
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKr-s...eature=related

Thanks a lot for the video...this is the best vid of sylhet that av seen so far.it seems to be on track to become a big busy city in the near future

[devastasian]

All-in-all I must have taken some 2,000 photos of Bangladesh, in particular Sylhet and Dhaka, during my recent visit. You may have noticed the odd couple I have already uploaded and here are a few more.

These are all of Sylhet City (December 2010):

Patantula: Sunrise Tower and adjacent Sunrise Centre:


Subid Bazar area:




Toward Zindabazar:

















Uposhohor area:


















View from the Sylhet Millenium (Zindabazar):








Panoramic of the Keane Bridge (1936):


ps. I would like to increase the size (esp. of the panos) when viewed on the forum, is there a particular code enabling this? The originals are 3648x2736 and the panos 4192x1080. PM would be appreciated. Thank you.

[tislam84]

Great pictures! Sylhet looks really green!

[Golden Boy]

Wow! Sylhet looks amazing if all the proposed projects gets finished, Sylhet is going to turn into nice city, devastasian can you please send more pics of Sylhet. Many thanks

[jason.kazi]

Originally Posted by Golden Boy

Wow! Sylhet looks amazing if all the proposed projects gets finished, Sylhet is going to turn into nice city, devastasian can you please send more pics of Sylhet. Many thanks

No, I think it's turn into a carbon copy of Dhaka city.

[tanzirian]

Great stuff devastasian! Great to see the new constructions in Sylhet!

[clearsky]

^ Sylhet city corporation should learn from Dhaka and implement sound city plans. Otherwise the city will be cluttered with unplanned infrastructure. And the people of the city will start to face the same issues with regards to drainage, water, electricity etc similar as Dhaka. I think we lack sound vision as a nation. We always try to patch up issues rather than predicting issues before they occur. We can avoid lots of issues if we look beyond the present time.

[Golden Boy]

Daily Sun:
Sylhet to be made a planned city


→ Iqbal Mahmud
Sylhet: A new master plan for Sylhet city has been prepared.

Private real estate firm Sheltech has outlined a 20-year long programme to materialise the long cherished dream of the people of Sylhet.

The developer recently handed over the proposed master plan to Finance Minister AMA Muhith, also a lawmaker of Sylhet. It will soon be submitted to the concerned ministry for approval.

“We have materialised the dream of the people of Sylhet in the plan. Now it is up to the government to execute it,” Al Amin, deputy urban planer of Sheltech, told the daily sun.

He claimed the master plan has been framed in line with the latest concept of urbanisation.

Sylhet municipality started its journey in 1867 and was promoted to a city corporation in 2003.

Many initiatives were taken to make a master plan of the city in the past but none of them were implemented finally.

In January, the finance minister assigned Sheltech to prepare a master plan for the city. They worked hard for nine months and prepared the master plan as well as the structure plan and detailed area plan.

After the government approval the execution of the plan will start soon phase by phase, officials at the Sylhet city corporation said.

It will take 2030 to fully execute the master plan as per the proposal.

The total city area is expanded into 85 square kilometres from existing 26.5 square kilometres in the proposal.

According to the master plan, the existing main roads will be 85 feet wide and more than 30 kilometre roads will be constructed newly.

The master plan proposes construction of a huge number of link roads, commercial zones, development of drainage system, shifting the central jail, currently located at the heart of the city Bandar Bazar, to out of the city and building a park there.

For beautification of the city, Sheltech proposed reforming the banks of the Surma River, establishing a ‘water based park’ on the bank of the river at Shahjalal Uposhohor area and a river front recreation park on the northern bank of the river at Kanishayeel area.

The master plan recommended that the occupied canals should be recovered and transformed them into lakes.

Abdul Malek, executive engineer of Sylhet City Corporation, said once the master plan is executed problems of the city dwellers like water logging, traffic jam and lack of pure drinking water will be solved.

Sylhet Mayor Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran is hopeful that it will be possible to execute a major part of the master plan if the government provides required assistance.

Opinions and suggestions have been taken from the local stakeholders during the formulation of the plan, he added.

Local inhabitants of Sylhet are happy to know about the development plan of their city. But they are anxious whether the plan will be executed finally. Advocate Emad Ullah Shahidul Islam, president of district Bar Association, said a lot of good initiatives could not be carried out in the past due to inner conflict of the leaders of the ruling party.

He hoped this time the master plan will not go in vain like the previous ones.

[jason.kazi]

Originally Posted by clearsky

^ Sylhet city corporation should learn from Dhaka and implement sound city plans. Otherwise the city will be cluttered with unplanned infrastructure. And the people of the city will start to face the same issues with regards to drainage, water, electricity etc similar as Dhaka. I think we lack sound vision as a nation. We always try to patch up issues rather than predicting issues before they occur. We can avoid lots of issues if we look beyond the present time.

Dhaka has a solid plan, it's just lacking the quick implementation of the plans. Mostly due to the non-peaceful transfer of power in government.

[mirzazeehan]

Thanks for sharing these great pics devastation.Seems like sylhet had turned into a booming city.Govt should now look to improve the infrastructure of this city.

[TIslam]

Originally Posted by Golden Boy

Daily Sun:
Sylhet to be made a planned city


→ Iqbal Mahmud
Sylhet: A new master plan for Sylhet city has been prepared.

It would be proper if you credited the source of the article, by providing a link (url). Thanks.

[beer51]

How long will it take to implement the master plan?

Sylhet needs to attract companies through government initiative and expats should stop building shopping malls there is already too many.

[TIslam]

Originally Posted by beer51

How long will it take to implement the master plan?

Sylhet needs to attract companies through government initiative and expats should stop building shopping malls there is already too many.

By government, I hope you meant local government.

[devastasian]

A 'solid' plan for Dhaka was mentioned, but sadly this somewhat ad hoc plan is only a glorified capital city centric development plan (for Bangladesh). I understand Dhaka is the nations' commercial, political, judicial and cultural hub, but it is unsustainable (and will eventually be its own un-doing). Investment needs to be fairly allocated to regional divisions and cities, I would even go as far as to say I would like to see divisional empowerment and some form of devolution.

Sylhet (and other centres) around Bangladesh are neglected, it is fact. It is the reason why though my family are Sylheti through-and-through half are now located in Dhaka for purely business reasons.

The development you see is purely down to Sylhetis themselves - and I include the expat community here.

Sorry, rant over, but this is the Sylhet thread and I am just airing my personal views. Can you tell we get a bit hot under the collar at times

Anyway, the theme for the below is: hustle and bustle:

Zindabazar rooftop:


Zindabazar pano:


Zindabazar close up:


I think this is the Sylhet-Dhaka highway (but I may be wrong):


Zindabazar streetview:


Signage:




Sylhet city stadium:


Construction:


Sheghat area:

[beer51]

devastasian

It is the truth, just look at the projects that are under way or completed by expat/ sylhetis.

Government doesn't realise the amount of idle money in sylhet that could be utilised. What happened to the free zone that sylhet was supposed to get.

[clearsky]

You are correct that we need to decentralize our cities. HM Ershad tried to do that by moving the judicial branch out of Dhaka. But the judges at that time protested and refused to work form courtrooms located in different divisions. In terms of importance, all parts of BD are EQUIALLY important. However, due to variation of opportunities people tend to like Dhaka the most as that's where all the top institutions can be found.

People of Sylhet do have representatives in the govt. So, they are not under represented. As far as I know, they haven't or are not expressing the same level of frustration about Sylhet, perhaps like you and me!

[devastasian]

I am not advocating a move of the judiciary, or for Sylhet be allowed to draw up its own economic policies for example, but rather devolution of authority to reflect those issues that affect Sylhet. It's the same sort of idea as authorising local hospital management to procure it's own medicines as opposed to it being done centrally.

I would hope this be more efficient with regards to policy formulation - and possibly even more democratic - allowing for 'minor' changes in spending/taxation etc. for the betterment of everybody.

It's a shame when you fly out of Chittagong en-route to Dhaka; the cities aren't even comparable... I'm not even sure if Sylhet would show on the radar!

You really can't overemphasise the importance of a tangible regional development policy when discussing national development I think this is the point.

[mirzazeehan]

Originally Posted by clearsky

You are correct that we need to decentralize our cities. HM Ershad tried to do that by moving the judicial branch out of Dhaka. But the judges at that time protested and refused to work form courtrooms located in different divisions. In terms of importance, all parts of BD are EQUIALLY important. However, due to variation of opportunities people tend to like Dhaka the most as that's where all the top institutions can be found.

People of Sylhet do have representatives in the govt. So, they are not under represented. As far as I know, they haven't or are not expressing the same level of frustration about Sylhet, perhaps like you and me!

Sylhetis are not just not " under-represented",they have actually been running the finance ministry of Bangladesh for decades.Saifur Rahman,who has been the longest serving finance minister of our country,was from Sylhet.Kibria,who replaced him in 1996 as finance minister,was also from Sylhet.
The current finance minister,Abul Mal Muhith,who replaced saifur and kibria..is also from sylhet.

So sylhetis have been running the finance ministry of bangladesh and making our national budgets for decades.Had discontent been so widespread among the general people of sylhet,they would have not elected these people again and again as members of parliament from sylhet division which in turn led them to becoming ministers.However,I do agree that the government should allocate greater amounts for the development of sylhet which because of its expat population has great potential of attracting investment and becoming an important economic center.

[m_c_hotmail_uk]

old picture buildings behind roseview tower are now completed and this road is now dual carriageway