Dhaka City expands by more than double after inclusion of 16 union councils

The government has cleared merging of 16 union councils into the two Dhaka city corporations, expanding the city’s area by more than double.

The decision was cleared on Monday at a meeting of the National Implementation Committee on Administrative Reform (NICAR) chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

“Sixteen union councils have been merged into Dhaka City. Both North and South city corporations have annexed eight union councils each,” Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam told the media.

The eight unions included in the North are Beraid, Badda, Vatara, Satarkul, Harirampur, Uttarkhan, Dakshinkhan and Dumni.

The South city corporation got Shyampur, Dania, Matuail, Sarulia, Demra, Manda, Dakshingaon and Nasirabad.

The inclusion has increased the Dhaka City’s area from the current 129 square kilometres to 270 square kilometres, said the Cabinet secretary.

But the two corporations combined will still not be enough to rival Gazipur City Corporation in size, which with 329 square kilometres still remains the largest city in Bangladesh.

The 16 unions have a combined population of around 1 million, according to statistics from 2011, but the figure has risen since then.

The inclusion of new areas means 10.623 million people now live in Dhaka’s north and 7.5 million in the south.    

The official population count for the two cities is above 18 million, but the figure is much greater in reality.

Elections will be announced in these unions once the wards are redrawn, said the Cabinet secretary.