The Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP) on Tuesday proposed a seven-point roadmap for sustainable urban development, urging the government to make continuity of planning immune to political and administrative changes and to require a mandatory compliance check before approving any development project.

At a press conference at BIP's conference hall in Planners Tower, BIP President Muhammad Ariful Islam presented the recommendations on behalf of the institute, saying fragmented, short-term and sector-based planning must give way to integrated national and regional spatial planning.

BIP's seven recommendations:

1. Ensure continuity and full implementation of ongoing plans regardless of political or administrative change.

2. Bar any individual, group or institution from altering or scrapping the basic structure of approved plans for commercial or personal gain.

3. Review planning progress and obstacles every five years with planners, experts, government agencies and local stakeholders, while keeping core objectives intact.

4. Replace fragmented, single-sector or short-term planning with integrated national and regional spatial planning covering land use, transport, environment, housing and the economy.

5. Prohibit projects in wetlands, farmland, water bodies or other environmentally sensitive areas that conflict with approved plans.

6. Make a "Planning Compliance Report" mandatory for every development project before approval.

7. Ensure development remains planning-based and long-term, accounting for future regional needs, environmental balance and the interests of coming generations, rather than being confined to isolated projects.

BIP General Secretary Mohammad Mosleh Uddin Hasan said the entire country, not just Dhaka, must be brought under a long-term national spatial plan, moving away from short, five-year planning cycles. Planner AKM Riaz Uddin called for enacting and implementing the Spatial Planning Act to bring all of Bangladesh under integrated planning, along with unified leadership for Greater Dhaka.

During a question-and-answer session, panelists cited the Panthakunj Park development project as an example of the broader planning failure. Adil Muhammad Khan questioned why such decisions are taken without adequate public consultation, while Mosleh Uddin Hasan described project approvals based on the consent of a handful of policymakers as "planning fascism." Board member Talha Tasnim added that a shared national database would cut duplication in data collection and improve inter-agency coordination in future planning efforts.

The speakers said implementing the recommendations would require sustained political will, institutional accountability and genuine citizen participation.