Smart city concept: Is it possible to build urban economies outside Dhaka? Published : Updated : Dhaka, being the heart of Bangladesh, has been burdened by population density over the years. Dhaka holds all the centres of Bangladesh, including administration, education, economy, healthcare, and many more. Along with population density, Dhaka has also been facing traffic jams, housing problems, and the most serious one – environmental pollution. So the first question that arises here is, can Dhaka be decentralised? Can Dhaka be free of all this chaos? Or can we build a new urban economy outside of Dhaka? To be honest, the answer is absolutely positive. Yes, we can decentralise Dhaka and free our capital from the burden of the abovementioned pressures. It is extremely necessary for the development of our country. A few prominent urban experts of our country have agreed that if decentralisation doesn’t happen sooner, our country will face economic loss in the long run. They claimed that productivity is decreasing at a high pace because of over-centralising Dhaka over the years. Not only productivity but also time is being wasted everyday which is making the citizens suffer since a long time. Along with these, urban life’s quality is also decreasing. One cannot define a smart city by the number of tall buildings or flyovers. To be counted as a smart city, the citizens need to have an easy lifestyle; they should feel that they are living in a safe and environmentally friendly environment. In this case, planning is the most important thing. It should be the first priority. In order to build a new urban economy, we need to focus on a lot of things. We cannot just depend on housing. We also need to work on establishing schools, colleges, hospitals, community centres, shopping malls, corporate