Review of “The Project of Independence: Architectures of Decolonization in South Asia, 1947–1985,” the Museum of Modern Art’s show devoted to modernist architecture in India and Pakistan.
The Prime Minister s Office has given its consent to shifting the iconic Kamalapur Station Plaza further north, which would mean dismantling the structure and erecting a similar one in the new location. The station building would be shifted to the northern side to accommodate the scissor crossing of MRT-6 [Mass Rapid Transit-6] line…, reads a PMO document. And Bangladesh Railway and DMTCL [Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited] have already reached a consensus in this regard, reads the minutes of a meeting presided over by Prime Minister s Principal Secretary Ahmad Kaikaus.
The meeting took place in December last year and the minutes were released earlier this month.
Saving the Kamalapur Railway Station building
Kamalapur Railway Station. Photo: Collected
Having grown up in Dhaka in the early 1950s, I am aghast at the way we are erasing our architectural heritage. The buildings of Gulistan and Naz cinemas which had deep imprints on public memory has been replaced by an ugly monstrosity of a shopping mall. Our national mosque Baitul Mokarram, one of the first examples of modern architecture in Dhaka and representing modern Dhaka, has been extended by stylistically incongruous gates and minarets besides being surrounded by shops degrading its serenity and visibility. Shahbagh roundabout fountain, an iconic landmark of Dhaka, was replaced with an ugly mass. The Agriculture Laboratory building, a fine colonial structure in Farmgate along the metro line, has already been demolished.