Dhaka District Information

Dhaka District Information

Dhaka District is a district located in central Bangladesh which is a part of the Dhaka Division. Dhaka was formerly known as Dacca and Jahangir Nagar( under Mughal rule ). Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh rests on the eastern banks of the Buriganga River which flows from the Turag River. Dhaka district was established in 1772. The district consists of 5 upazilas, 21 thanas, 3 municipalities, 77 union parishads, 1020 mouzas and 1863 villages.Dhaka city is the centre of Bangladesh occupies only one fifth of the area of Dhaka district. The upazilas are not part of city. They are:

 • Dhamrai Upazila

 • Dohar Upazila

 • Keraniganj Upazila

 • Nawabganj Upazila

 • Savar Upazila

 Dhaka city has seven principal thanas and fourteen auxiliary thanas. The principal thanas are:

 • Dhanmondi

 • Kotwali

 • Motijheel

 • Ramna

 • Mohammadpur

 • Sutrapur

 • Tejgaon

 The 14 auxiliary thanas are:

 • Gulshan

 • Lalbagh

 • Mirpur

 • Pallabi

 • Sabujbagh

 • Cantonment

 • Demra

 • Hazaribagh

 • Shyampur

 • Badda

 • Kafrul

 • Kamringir Char

 • Khilgaon

 • Uttara

Area: 1463.60 square kilometers.

Population (1991): 7,996,000. Male 55.15%, female 44.85%

Density : 5,465.5/km2 (14,155.5/sq mi)

Literacy rate : Total 53.9%. Male 60.1% and female 45.9%.

Religion: Islam92%, Hinduism5%, Christianity2%, Buddhism 1%.

Boundary: Dhaka District is bordered with Gazipur and Tangail to the north, Munshiganj and Rajbari to the south, Narayanganj to the east and Manikganj to the west.

Major rivers: Padma, Kaliganga, Dhaleshwari, Ichamati, Shitalakshya, Buriganga and smaller rivers are like Bangshi, Turag, Balu, Elamjani, Alam, Bherujkha, Ramkrishnadi, Elisamari, Tulsikhali.

Major lakes: Belai, Saldaher, Labandaher, Churain, Damsharan and Kiranjir.

Weather: Annual average temperature of the district is maximum 34.5°C and minimum 11.5°C. Average annual rainfall is 1931mm.

Educational institutions: Dhaka has the largest number of schools, colleges and universities then any district of Bangladesh. There are 52 universities in Dhaka. 3 public general universities are Dhaka University (DU), Jahangirnagar University (JU) and Jagannath University. Technical public universities are Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka University of Engineering and Technology (DUET), Sher-E-Bangla Agricultural University, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University. 3 public medical colleges in Dhaka are Dhaka Medical College, Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Sir Salimullah Medical College. Beside these there are a lot of private medical colleges, many private and public institutions which offer higher education. Therte are technical training colleges, 3 government teacher’s training college, 21 government college, 3 law college, 3 primary teacher’s training institute, 4 technical training institute and lots of school, college, madrasa and English medium schools.

 There are many old institutions here. The Dhaka College is the oldest institution of higher education in the city founded in 1840. Jagannath College (1884), Pogose School (1828) etc are very old institutions in the city.The University of Dhaka is the oldest, largest public university with more than 30,000 students and 1,300 faculty staff. distinguished seats of higher education include the Jahangirnagar University and the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University is the only medical University in the nation.

Notable graveyards: Azimpur, Banani, Narinda Christian graveyard.

Marks of the War of Liberation:  Mass grave are near Kalampur Bazar (Dhamrai), South Kamlapur (Dhaka), NATIONAL MARTYRS’ MEMORIAL (Savar). mass killing site are at Rayerbazar, Memorial Monument for intellectuals at Mirpur, Central Shaheed Minar, Amar Ekushey and Sangsaptak Sculptures (Jahangirnagar University), Aparajeyo Bangla and Soparjita Swadhinata (Dhaka University), Shahid Jahangir Gate and in many other places.

Main occupations: Service 31.49%, commerce 23.08%, transport 8.53%, Agriculture 7.62%, agricultural labourer 4.41%, wage labourer 2.71%, industrial labourer 1.87%, construction 2.76%, house renting out 2.23% and others 15.3%.

Factories and mils: Garments industry, pharmaceutical industry, foot ware, Ceramic industry, beverage industry, press and publication, jute mills, textile mills, printing and dying factory, transformer industry, automobile industry, biscuit and bread factory, cosmetic industry, soap factory, rice mill, flour mill, ice factory, ball pen industry, saw mill, brick field, cold storage, weling, plant nursery, spare parts work shops and a lot.

Main exports: Ready made garments, medicine, cosmetics, electronics, electrical goods, rice, mustard seed, vegetables, peanut, banana, coconut, jackfruit etc.

Economy of Dhaka: Dhaka is wellknown as the commercial heart of Bangladesh. Main commercial areas of the city include Farmgate, New Market, Gulshan, Motijheel, Tejgaon and Hazaribagh. Karwan Bazar is one of the important business centers in Dhaka. Motijheel is called the financial district of Dhaka.

 The Export Processing Zone in Dhaka is very important for our GDP. It was set up to encourage the export of garments, textiles and other goods. Dhaka has two EPZ’s which has 413 industries. They employ mostly women.

 The Dhaka Stock Exchange is the argest stock exchange of Bangladesh which is based on the city. most of the large multinationals companies are situated here including Citigroup, HSBC Bank Bangladesh, JPMorgan Chase, Standard Chartered Bank (Bangladesh), American Express, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Total, British Petroleum, Unilever, Nestle, DHL Express, FedEx and British American Tobacco. Large local conglomerates like Concord Group, Rangs Group, Beximco Group, Summit Group, Navana Group, Zaman Group of Industries and Rahimafrooz also have their corporate offices located in Dhaka. Banks offering Microcredit has the offices of the Nobel Prize winning Grameen Bank and BRAC are in Dhaka.

 Developers buided a lot of skyscrapers which changed the city landscape. Growth has been especially strong in the finance, banking, manufacturing, telecommunications tourism and services sectors. But the city has lack of planning. The city is growing a high population by the population coming from the villages in search of employment. Some of they are surviving on less than $10 a day. The buildings are being made without any plan and the city is inrisk of earthquake.

Transport: Dhaka is known as the rickshaw capital of the world where approximately 400,000 rickshaws run each day. Here Cycle rickshaws and auto rickshaws are the main mode of transport. But in the city in some areas cycle rickshaw have been bannedfor the traffic jam. Public buses operated by the state-run Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) and by private companies and operators are used by people for its low cost. Scooters, taxis and privately owned automobiles are becoming popular with the city’s growing middle class now a days. The government has overseen the replacement of two-stroke engine taxis with “Green taxis” locally called CNG, which run on compressed natural gas. It is also popular.

 Beside these Dhaka is connected to the other parts of the country through strong highway links. The Kamalapur Railway Station( largest one), Airport (Biman Bandar) Railway Station and the Cantonment Railway Station are the main railway stations providing trains operated by the Bangladesh Railway. Bangladesh Railway is also connected with Kolkata and Agartala of India by train.

 The Sadarghat Port on the banks of the Buriganga River serves the transportation of goods and passengers to other ports in Bangladesh. This port serves Dhaka to be connected with the southern part of the country.

 Dhaka has domestic air links to Chittagong, Sylhet, Cox’s Bazar, Jessore, Barisal, Saidpur and international air links to major cities around the world. The Shahjalal International Airport is the largest and busiest in the country. It handles about 52% of the country’s international and domestic arrivals and departures.

Dhaka City:

 Dhaka is the capital and the principal city of Dhaka District. This is one of the major cities of South Asia which is located on the banks of the Buriganga River. Dhaka has a population of around 13 million in its metropolitan area. Dhaka is world’s 9th largest agglomeration and the largest city within the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. Dhaka is also known as the City of Mosques. In the 17th century Dhaka was a city and was known as Jahangir Nagar. It was the provincial capital and a center of muslin trade. The modern city was emarged under British rule in the 19th century and was the second-largest city in Bengal after Calcutta. After the Partition of Bengal in 1905 Dhaka was the capital of the new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam . After the partition of India, Dhaka became the administrative capital of East Pakistan and finally in 1971, the capital of an independent Bangladesh. Todays Dhaka is the center of political, cultural and economic life of Bangladeshies.

 The municipal area of Dhaka city is under the jurisdiction of the Dhaka City Corporation and for the administrative purposes the municipal area is divided into 90 wards. Dhaka municipality was founded on August 1, 1864 and got “corporation” status in 1978. The mayor is the administrator who of is elected by popular vote every five years. The Dhaka Education Board , madrasa board is operated from Dhaka. The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) was established in 1976. For the rapid population growth of the city the establishment of 33 police stations has been completed and the creation of another 18 police stations is underway.The city is divided into 10 parliamentary constituencies. In Ramna the Secretariat is situated. The Supreme Court of Bangladesh and the Dhaka High Court are also located in the city. Traffic jam is a great problem of Dhaka city.

 Dhaka has a water-borne sewage system, but this serves only 25% of the population and other 30% are served with septic tanks. two-thirds of households in Dhaka are served only by the city water supply system.

People of the city and their culture:

 The city population is a composition of peoples from every region of Bangladesh. The inhabitants of the old city are known as Dhakaia and have a distinctive dialect and culture. About 15,000 to 20,000 of the population are Rohingya, Santal, Khasi, Garo, Chakma and Mandi tribal .Dhaka also has a large population of Chinese, Korean and Indian who are in executive jobs in different industries.

 Population growth: 4.2% per year, one of the highest rates amongst Asian cities. According to Far Eastern Economic Review, Dhaka will become a home of 25 million people by the year 2025.

 Literacy rate: 62.3%.

 Religion: Islam is the dominant religion of people of Dhaka it has a majority of the Sunni sect but there is also a small Shia sect and a Ahmadiya community. Hinduism is the second-largest religion and others follow Buddhism and Christianity.

 People of the city celebrate the national festibals like Independence Day (March 26), Language Martyrs’ Day (February 21) ,Victory Day (December 16), Pohela Baishakh, the Bengali New Year very prominently . Dhaka’s people congregate at the Shaheed Minar and the Jatiyo Smriti Soudho to remember the national heroes of the liberation war and arrange many public ceremonies and rallies in public grounds. In the Pohela Baishakh Large crowds of people gather on the streets of Shahbag, Ramna Park and the campus of the University of Dhaka for celebrations wearing traditional dresses. Peole also celebrate the Muslim festivals of Eid ul-Fitr, Eid ul-Adha & Hindu festival Durga Puja and other religious festivals. For much of recent history, Dhaka was characterised by roadside markets and small shops that

 Shopping malls, multiplexes, hotels and restaurants are increasing day by day which attracts Dhaka’s growing middle-class and wealthy residents especially the Youngs. With the traditional Bangladeshi cuisine and South Asian variants, a large variety of Western and Chinese cuisine is served at numerous restaurants fastfoods of KFC, Pizza Hut etc are very popular among the new generation. Dhakai foods like Hajir Biriani(Haji’s Biriani), Fakhruddin Biriani, Mama Halim,nannar biriani, Borhani etc are still very popular amongst Dhakaiyas.

 with the traditional folk music,rock bands, pop music are also popular. national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam and national anthem writer Rabindranath Tagore is enough popular till now. The Baily Road area is known as Natak Para (Theater Neighborhood) which is the center of Dhaka’s theater movement. With Bangladeshi music Indian and Western music and films are popular with large segments of Dhaka’s population.

Media and communications:

 The Bangladeshi postal service has headquarter in Dhaka.

 Dhaka is home to the major newspapers and publications. Daily Ittefaq, Daily Azad, Manabzamin, Daily Janakantha, Daily Prothom Alo, Amar Desh andsome of the main Bangla newspapers has headquarter in Dhaka. . The major English newspapers include The Daily Star, The Independent, The Bangladesh Observer, New Age and The Financial Express etc has also headquarter in Dhaka. Popular weekly newapapers and magazines include Holiday, The Star, Dhaka Courier, Anandaloke and Saptahik 2000 has headquarters in Dhaka.

 Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha BSS (The national news agency) handles national news including the activities of the government, diplomatic affairs, socio-political happenings, economy, finance, sports, culture, law and parliamentary affairs and all. Other news agencyes has also headquarter in Dhaka.

 The state-run television BTV is headquartered in Rampura, Dhaka.] private r television channel including (Diganta TV),Bangla Vision,RTV, ATN Bangla, Channel I, NTV, Ekushey Television, Banglavision etc. are also based in Dhaka.

 Bangladesh Betar is the state-runed radio service broadcasts a variety of programming in Bangla and English has headquarter at Sher-e-Bangla Nagor in Dhaka. In recent years many private radio networks like FM radio services, have been established in the city such as Radio Foorti FM 88.0, Radio Today FM 89.6, Radio Amar FM 101.6 and ABC Radio FM 89.2 became very popular which are headquarted in Dhaka.

 Grameenphone, Robi, Banglalink, Warid etc also has headquarters in Dhaka.

Places to see

 Lalbagh fort and the tomb of Bibi Pari (1668)

 Bara katra (1641)

 Chhota katra and the tomb of Bibi Champa (1663)

 Ancient Fort and the palace of the Nawab (Jail Hospital, 1638)

 Ahsan manzil (1872)

 Husaini dalan (1642)

 Binod Bibi Mosque (1456 AD)

 Chawk Mosque (1676)

 Bibi Meher Mosque (1814)

 Armanitola Mosque (1716)

 Khawja Shahbaj Mosque (1679)

 Shayesta Khan Mosque (1664-78)

 Khawja Ambar Mosque (1677-78)

 Moriam Saleh Mosque (1706)

 Sitara Begum Mosque (1815)

 Farruk Shayer Mosque (1703-1704)

 Azimpur Mosque (1746)

 Kartalab Khan Mosque (1700-1704)

 Holy Rosary Church (1678)

 Setara Begum Mosque (1819)

 Bagmara Math (Nawabganj)

 Home stead of Raja Harish Chandra (eighteenth century, Savar)

 Shree Shree Sani Ashram and Math (1199 AD)

 Dhakeshwari Mandir (eventeenth century)

 Jaykali Mondir

 Bahadur Shah Park

 Nimtali Deuri (Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, 1765)

 Bangabandhu National Stadium

 Sher-e-Bangla Mirpur Stadium (in Mirpur)

 Dhanmondi Cricket Stadium

Aurangabad Fort

National Museum

Mirpur Zoo

The Botanical garden(Mirpur)

Once famed for its Muslim, Dhaka is now renowned for pink pearls and a rich tradition of handicrafts.

Shoppers can find lower prices of gold and silver products, and the Dhaka shopping areas of New market and Elephant road and Dhanmondi are good for shopping.

 .It contains various species of plants.It is also a major tourist spot.

Jatiyo Smriti Soudho (Savar)

Star Mosque (200 years old mosque with five domes)

Satmasjid (In Mohammadpur. known for its seven domes)

National Museum (In the old European quarter, Shahbag)

Bara Katra

The tomb of Bibi Champa (1663)

Ancient Fort and the palace of the Nawab (Jail Hospital, 1638).

Current MP(s) from 2008

Current MP(s) from 2008
Seat code	Seat Name	Current MP	Political Party
174	Dhaka-1	Abdul Mannan Khan	Bangladesh Awami League
175	Dhaka-2	Md. Kamrul Islam	Bangladesh Awami League
176	Dhaka-3	Nasrul Hamid	Bangladesh Awami League
177	Dhaka-4	Sanjida Khanam	Bangladesh Awami League
178	Dhaka-5	Habibur Rahman Molla	Bangladesh Awami League
179	Dhaka-6	Mizanur Rahman Khan	Bangladesh Awami League
180	Dhaka-7	Mostofa Zalal Mohiuddin	Bangladesh Awami League
181	Dhaka-8	Rashed Khan Mennon.	Bangladesh Workers Party
182	Dhaka-9	Saber Hossain Chowdhury	Bangladesh Awami League
183	Dhaka-10	A. K. M. Rahmatullah	Bangladesh Awami League
184	Dhaka-11	Asaduzzaman Khan	Bangladesh Awami League
185	Dhaka-12	Fazle Noor Taposh Sheikh	Bangladesh Awami League
186	Dhaka-13	Jahangir Kabir Nanak	Bangladesh Awami League
187	Dhaka-14	Md. Aslamul Haque	Bangladesh Awami League
188	Dhaka-15	Kamal Ahmed Mojumder	Bangladesh Awami League
189	Dhaka-16	Md. Elias Uddin Molla	Bangladesh Awami League
190	Dhaka-17	Hussein Muhammod Arshad	Jatiya Party
191	Dhaka-18	Sahara Khatun	Bangladesh Awami League
192	Dhaka-19	Talukder Md.Tohed Jong (Murad)	Bangladesh Awami League
193	Dhaka-20	Benzir Ahmed	Bangladesh Awami League