Kazi Nafisa Anjum
Why does it still take years — and sometimes decades — to deliver safe, affordable public housing, even when technology and expertise are right at our fingertips?
As a senior licensed architect of Bangladesh with over fifteen years of experience, and now a project management professional trained in New York, I have witnessed this paradox from Dhaka to New York. Despite the proven success of modern construction management in the private sector, public housing projects — both in Bangladesh and abroad — often lag far behind in cost control, efficiency, and quality. It is time for a bold shift: embracing innovation, technology, and teamwork to reform how we build homes for the people who need them most.
As a senior licensed architect with over 11 years of experience in Bangladesh and a certified project management professional in Newyork for last 2 years, I have seen public housing challenges up close. My career has taught me one thing: even advanced countries struggle when public projects ignore innovation. In New York City, for example, critics note that NYCHA’s $78 billion repair backlog has been used as an “excuse to not fix problems,” justifying years of delays. When public housing is managed in slow-motion, ordinary people suffer – paying rent for shoddy flats and waiting years for decent homes. If New York can fall prey to such inertia, Bangladesh cannot afford to lag even further.
In New York, elected leaders have documented how rising cost estimates stalled repairs. The City’s investigation found that NYCHA’s projected $485K per-apartment cost far exceeded what private-sector renovations actually achieved. In short, public-sector bureaucracy used ballooning figures to delay work, even though private-sector solutions showed much leaner budgets. The lesson is stark: innovation can cut costs and speed projects, but only if management lets it. If a rich city like New York fights this battle, our policymakers should feel even more urgency.
Back home, we see similar symptoms. Consider Dhaka’s Rajuk housing projects: The Daily Star recently reported that Rajuk’s Tk9,978 crore Jhilmil scheme (launched in 2017) remains unstarted after five years – four years past its original deadline. Editors blasted Rajuk’s “perpetual slo-mo” as “no stranger to such botch-ups,” citing “inefficiency, corruption and mismanagement” within the agency. Such systemic delays are all too familiar to architects and engineers working in government-controlled projects. In many cases, basic approvals take months of paperwork. I have witnessed a sample case where one government office mandated a deep-pile foundation (to safeguard against floods), while a parallel department insisted on a simpler raft design – each adamant on its own rules. The engineer had to re-submit plans twice, and construction sat idle for months. This kind of conflicting instruction – issued by Rajuk on one day and, say, a water authority or environmental department the next – turns projects into merry-go-rounds.
Bureaucratic “gridlock” of this kind exacts a heavy price. When two agencies issue opposing requirements, public-housing construction can stall indefinitely. Meanwhile, interest, costs and citizen frustration mount. In Dhaka and Chittagong alike, well-meaning plans falter at the tangled intersection of city planners, architecture councils and engineer associations. The result is predictable: delayed completion, cost overruns, and substandard living conditions for low-income families who were promised relief.
Bangladesh has the expertise to fix this. Our private sector is already pushing boundaries: major developers now employ cutting-edge construction methods. Modular and prefabricated construction is on the rise. For example, prefabricated housing units can reduce construction costs by up to 30% and speed up project completion. Likewise, Building Information Modeling (BIM) is beginning to make headway. The government’s own Ministry of Housing and Public Works has started to use BIM for designing and managing government buildings and launched training programs. But overall BIM uptake is still limited. This must change: one study bluntly observes that “to ensure efficiency there is no other way to adopt BIM in the construction industry.” When used, BIM yields clear benefits – a majority of firms report greater productivity, smoother coordination, and faster workflows. In practice, a unified BIM model lets architects, engineers and contractors work on one live 3D plan, catching design clashes immediately and cutting confusion.
To harness these tools for public housing, policy reforms and inter-agency collaboration are crucial. Housing authorities must break down silos. In particular, institutions like the Institute of Architects Bangladesh (IAB), Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK), the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB) and city planning departments should form joint committees. All stakeholders – planners, designers, safety inspectors and digital experts – need a seat at the table from day one. Working together, they can create clear, standardized procedures that avoid the ‘multiple approvals’ trap.
Equally, we should build the digital infrastructure. Imagine a single cloud-based construction platform for every public-housing project, accessible to all agencies and contractors. On this platform, progress is monitored in real time via live site cameras. Each trade (civil, electrical, mechanical, etc.) has a dedicated dashboard showing current status. Any design change in the central BIM model is automatically seen by everyone. Such a system would eliminate redundant paperwork: inspectors could verify progress remotely, finance officers could release payments on schedule, and engineers could flag quality issues instantly. In effect, bureaucratic reporting time and travel for site visits would shrink dramatically.
These measures can transform public housing delivery. With a shared BIM model and live monitoring, quality control happens continuously – not at the end when it’s too late to fix faults. Reporting that used to take weeks will be done in days via collaborative dashboards. Safety checks, which often cost tens of thousands in overtime and rework, can be completed faster. In short, project delays will plummet, and even limited budgets will stretch further without sacrificing quality.
My own frustration is deep: I have walked dusty construction sites where nothing seemed to move, knowing that smarter management could have finished the project already. I also know it doesn’t have to be this way. We have capable engineers and architects, and the technology is here. What we need is the political will to reform. As one BIM expert put it, embracing digital tools and coordination is essential if we want efficiency.
Bangladesh’s public housing must be more than slow-motion architecture; it must become a model of innovation and dignity. Policymakers should heed this call for urgent reform. By breaking agency silos, adopting cloud-based monitoring and unified BIM collaboration, we can deliver faster, affordable homes without compromising quality or accountability. The time to build responsibly is now – for the sake of tens of thousands of families waiting for the shelter they deserve.
Author Bio:
Kazi Nafisa Anjum is a senior licensed architect of Bangladesh, holding a Bachelor of Architecture from Khulna University.
She spent over a decade working with leading architecture and real estate companies, including Nakshabid Architects and Anwar Landmark Ltd, where she specialized in residential building design and project management. She later earned her Master of Science in Project Management from St. Francis College, New York, and currently works in construction management on major public housing projects in New York City. She is a licensed Project management professional( PMP), a full member of the Institute of Architects Bangladesh (IAB), Senior Architect Member of RAJUK, and the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA).
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