Study on urban signs in Dhaka

Abstract

Dbaka, witb 10,7 million population. p05se,ses llLh p'1silJon among tb~ 19 mega cities of th~ world. According to thc projcction, it will be 4th m~ga city of the world WIth 21.1 million population in 2015 (UNFPA Report. 20(3). Dhaka City can be called a city of signs. The nllmbcr of pellplc, commerCIal activities and physical extent of the ~ily arc inel'ea,ing day by day, Along with these, the number of signs i" als'1 increasing. Signs are being used in Bangladesh since 50~-60s of nineteenth century and were being considered as important v)sual elements. Since tlle boom in jute trade at Dbaka in 1854 to till today, approach and strategy of advel1isement is changing continuously, Not '1nly the number of signs ha~ been increased in this city 50 far, but also the design, style, color. technology of sign has been tremend'1usly changed. ln devel'1ped countries, there is a Sign ordinance or eomprehen,ive sign p'1llcy for each of their big cities like Dhaka [0 have overall C'1ntrol on sign. Atthc same time, up to 201l5, in Bangladesh, there is no individual SIb'll ordillance '1r comprehensive sign policy for any of her cities. Even, no research has been conducted to find out a way to control the gl'Owth of sign. In January 2003, only a _"gn policy has been fonnulated by Dhnka City Corporation, which i, rclnted to business signs only, The research was conducted to study urban ~igns of Dhaka and existing rules and regulatIOns regarding urban sign and to study the visual impact of sign on the city and city people from peoples perspective. This shldy was also done to provide some gUIdelines for a comprt:hensive model sign ordinance. The research was conducted on five typical area, of Dhaka City e.g. Mirpur road- Elephant road, University area; Mohakhali-TeJgaon; Gulshan; Old Dhaka and Utlara. This study Jound out the existmg ,;ituation of different issues on sign,; e,g. taxation, challenges of dealing,; in/wIth signs, a snapshot on the physical sccnario of ,;igns, sporadic rules - I'Cb'Uiation" current practice,; regarding sign, Dhaka City Corporation policy on signs, ~iolal1ons of the pohey. people', pcrccption regarding benet,! and adverse C[fect of sign" perccption regarding locaticll1 of SIgnS, means to increase the efficiency 0[' signs etc. The study reveals that the existing rules and regulations regarding Slb'l1Sarc insufficient and spOl'adic; there is no guidelines in any where of the existing p'1lieies and laws '1f Bangladcsh for political sign, banner, festoon, wall "'fiting, content relevancy etc, The ,tudy also reveals that 7% of total signs are poorly nwinlained among the surveyed sign,; total 389 signs (13.71\%) out of 282\ has violated nominal yenkal clearance; Dhaka City CorpOl'ation nuthority keeps only the records of thosc signs from which they eilm rcvcnue; signs nrc placed in the restricted places violating the cXlsting policy; the participant, of the Focus Group DiscUSSlOilShave a number of altemall ve ldeas for increa~mg cfliciency and reducing the l1umber of signs in the city and also for rcuueing visual blight. It is evident from this stuuy that gcneral city dwellers as th~ larget beneficiaries of the signs can play an important role for formulating policies I ordinances through propel' participatIOn. The general people have some consttuctiyc comments and ideas rcgarding desired images of signs for Dhaka Mega City.