Nine years for a two-year project: PM to inaugurate Osmani Udyan on Monday, opening to the public
After being closed for nearly nine years, the historic Osmani Udyan in the capital is finally set to reopen to the public. The modernised park and the newly built 'July Memorial' there will be formally inaugurated on Monday (October 19) by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, under an initiative of the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC). After the inauguration, the park will be opened for public movement. The news has delighted the capital's residents after a wait of nearly a decade.
The nearly 24-acre Osmani Udyan was once an important place for walking, resting and recreation for the common people of old Dhaka and the capital. But with entry closed due to prolonged development work, city dwellers were deprived of that opportunity for a long time. This important site adjacent to the Secretariat had turned into a construction site for years, while residents waited for its gates to open.
According to DSCC sources, the development project for Osmani Udyan was taken up in 2017 at a cost of Tk 108 crore. In January 2018, the then DSCC mayor Mohammad Sayeed Khokon formally inaugurated the construction work, naming it 'Goswa Nibarani Park'. According to the project schedule, the modernisation was supposed to be completed by December 2020 and the park opened to city residents. But even in nearly nine years, that could not be achieved.
Behind the two-year project stretching to nine years lie contractor complications and allegations of irregularities. Initially, in 2017, a firm called The Builders Engineers was given the development work. However, its work order was cancelled following various allegations of irregularities. Later, in 2023, a contracting firm named PF Corporation was given the work. It is learned that this firm ultimately completed the work.
Most recently, during the interim government's rule, the Local Government Ministry began building a memorial and two gates there in memory of the martyrs of the July mass uprising. Initially Tk 46 crore was allocated for this work, but after design changes the construction cost came down to Tk 38 crore. In total, about Tk 146 crore has been spent on various structures in the park over the past nine years.
Under the Tk 108 crore development project, a boundary wall, city museum, library, 12 shops, gymnasium, car parking space, lake-bank development, ghat, walkways and an electricity substation were built. At a cost of Tk 38 crore, a 90-foot-high bronze 'July Memorial' was constructed, with the names of the July uprising martyrs engraved on it.
The hemispherical section attached to the column carries sculptures depicting history from the British era through the 1952 Language Movement, the 1971 Liberation War, and the July 2024 mass uprising. Two gates shaped like the English numeral '24' have also been built at the park's entrances on both sides — embodying the memory of the July-August mass uprising.
The modernised park includes a library, food shops, parking space, gymnasium, table tennis and billiards facilities, ATM booths, a pharmacy, a city museum, children's play areas, lake banks and ghats, fields, and an electricity substation. The state minister said the newly arranged park has walkways, facilities for spending time with family, restaurants, a modern library, designated children's play areas, artificial water fountains and scenic water streams.
State Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Shahe Alam said that after being closed for nearly 10 years, city residents will finally be able to use this scenic park. A special memorial has been built in memory of the July martyrs and July heroic fighters. It will give visitors the opportunity to remember the historic student-people's revolution of July-August and the sacrifices of the martyrs.
The state minister added that the Dhaka South City Corporation is working day and night to enhance the beauty of this important site adjacent to the Secretariat and keep the environment pleasant. He believes the park will serve not only as a place of recreation but also as a memorial preserving the history of the July mass uprising.
However, there are allegations that infrastructure construction was given more importance than natural beauty in the park's modernisation. Thousands of trees were cut down under the project to build various structures. Urban planner and Jahangirnagar University professor Adil Muhammad Khan believes that excessive infrastructure work has destroyed the park's own character.
He said that if the development had been done with a nature-friendly design, it would not have taken so much time. Natural beauty was destroyed in the name of infrastructural development. There is actually a circle, he commented, that gives more importance to infrastructural development than natural beauty — because such works involve bigger budgets and more scope for corruption.
Despite the criticism, city residents are delighted at the news of Osmani Udyan reopening after nearly a decade. For the residents of old Dhaka, it was a beloved place — morning walks, evening chats, children's play. Everyone hopes that life will return there after the long closure. When the park begins its new journey with the Prime Minister's inauguration on Monday, it will be a long-awaited day for the capital's residents.
