Gulshan Thana - Geography

Geography

The Gulshan thana comprises an area of 53.59 km², consisting of three wards (72, 73 and 74), 37 mouzas and 20 villages, including Gulshan Model Town, consisting of Gulshan circle 1 and circle 2, Banani Model Town, Baridhara Diplomatic Zone, and Mohakhali. 50% of the area is residential, 20% commercial, and 12% is diplomatic area. 18% land in Gulshan consists of other areas, including slums, of which the biggest is the Karail slum. Apart from the urban areas, the 37 mouzas of Gulshan thana also contain 20 villages.

Gulshan is a commercial cum residential area, originally meant for offices and embassies of diplomatic missions, as well as posh residences. The area has seen an upsurge, since mid-1990s, in the number of high-rise buildings, posh restaurants, lavish residential areas, modern markets and ice-cream parlors which are open past midnight. The independent houses of early 1970s that stood far from each other in Gulshan area have vanished because of the commercial boom, to the point of old residents claiming it is not a residential area anymore. The traffic jams due to a lack of parking space and increased traffic activity for private schools and local clubs are have added to the problems, as well as a vanishing lake, flooded streets and growing slums. The increasing crowd of English-medium schools along road 55 in Gulshan Circle 2 is a particular area of concern. The Banani area faces further problems in the form of private university and shopping complex crowds, as well as rundown roads that has a lack of street lights.

Though Gulshan, Banani and Baridhara, as well as Uttara and other satellite towns like Bashundhara are relatively on higher lands, substantial part the Gulshan thana area remained under water for a prolonged duration during the 1998 Bangladesh flood. Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) conducted a survey to investigate the causes of and remedial measures in 1998 with particular focus on the Gulshan Lake and the Gulshan and Banani canals. Flood water runoff flows into these water bodies practically turning these into buffer flood control reservoirs, except some pockets of transient water-logging. Drains and sewerage pipes dumping wastes in the Gulshan lake has been identified as major pollution problem by DWASA. The malodorous wastes tend to spill over when the roads are flooded.