1001 Smart Cities
🇧🇩 Dhaka

RAJUK Electronic Construction Permitting System (ECPS)

🤖 AI-generated summary of the sources below · 🔎 Last verified · ◆ 16 sourced claims, none individually verified yet

This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed below and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.

How this atlas is made · What “last verified” means · What “source-checked” means · The full record behind this page

RAJUK, the authority that plans and permits building across greater Dhaka, moved land-use clearance and construction approval online in May 2019 and replaced that portal with the Electronic Construction Permitting System, launched on 19 September 2021 under the World Bank-financed Urban Resilience Project and built with the US consultancy RTI International. ECPS is an account-based workflow rather than a public register: a visitor without a login is offered a zone lookup, helpline numbers and notices, nothing more. In August 2026 it was again not accepting new applications, while it was rebuilt around the Dhaka Metropolitan Building Rules 2025.

Live 📅 since 2021
Outcome🔄 Ongoing
Evidence📊 Independent
what does this mean?The strongest source is an independent non-academic evaluation: an audit office, a government or EU review, or an NGO. It grades who did the looking — not how well the project went. All four grades →
Run byRajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK), the Capital Development Authority, under the Ministry of Housing and Public Works
Scale🗺️ Regional
Cost≈Tk 480 million (RAJUK sources), plus about Tk 50 million a year in maintenance
FundingWorld Bank IDA credit to the Government of Bangladesh under the Urban Resilience Project (P149493); system built with RTI International

📊 Impact

RAJUK's Development Control Division counted 56,729 applications and 42,007 approved buildings between July 2018 and May 2025, a span covering both the earlier portal and ECPS, with officials putting the flow at around a thousand applications a month and a typical approval at 45 days. The World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group, reviewing the project that paid for the system, found that RAJUK started issuing e-permits for construction as targeted, but rated that objective substantial only because of the limited evidence on final outcomes, noting the indicators were output-oriented and that several sub-projects lacked allocated operation and maintenance funding when the project closed.

🎓 Lesson

The weak point was the discretion the system was meant to remove. On 19 May 2025 a design approval for a 15-storey building at Baunia badh in Mirpur, a wetland and height-restricted plot that had already been refused, was issued in seventeen minutes using a RAJUK official's ID and password, and online services then stayed down for three months. The contract with the firm that maintained the software had expired in June 2024 and no successor had been appointed. Two boundaries sit on either side of the software: a 2020 Bangladesh Institute of Planners study counted 21.46 lakh establishments in RAJUK's area of which 20.60 lakh had no approved design at all, and the rulebook the system enforces is itself contested, since the Detailed Area Plan gazetted on 24 August 2022 was reopened under developer pressure and an advisory committee approved raising floor area ratios across most of the capital on 19 October 2025.

🏛️ GovernanceDigital governmentGIS & cadastre

Sources

↗ Prothom Alo, on the three-month suspension of RAJUK's online permitting (media)Published 29 August 2025Reported account of the suspension of design approval and land-use clearance between 19 May and late August 2025. Carries the pending caseload, the 19 May fraudulent approval at Baunia badh, the expired Dohatec maintenance contract, the 6 December 2023 loss of about 30,000 documents, the Development Control Division counts of 56,729 applications and 42,007 approved buildings for July 2018 to May 2025, and the sequence by which RAJUK went online (2016 limited land-use clearance, 2018 all zones, May 2019 both services). RAJUK sources in the same report date the ECPS itself to 2023 at a cost of Tk 480 million; the Financial Express reports the launch ceremony in September 2021, and this entry keeps both readings apart rather than resolving them.
↗ The Financial Express, on the launch of the electronic construction permitting system (media)Published 20 September 2021Report of the launch ceremony held on Sunday 19 September 2021. Names the State Minister for Housing and Public Works as inaugurating the ECP system at a ceremony organised by RAJUK's Urban Resilience Project, records World Bank financing and RTI International as the consulting firm, and lists the memoranda signed with the Institution of Engineers Bangladesh and the Institution of Architects Bangladesh. Read on the newspaper's print mirror because the main domain returns HTTP 403 to automated reading.
↗ World Bank Independent Evaluation Group, ICR Review of the Bangladesh Urban Resilience Project (independent)Report ICRR0024647, the Independent Evaluation Group's review of the Bangladesh Urban Resilience Project (P149493, approved 24 March 2015, closed 30 June 2024), which financed the ECPS. It records that RAJUK started issuing e-permits as targeted, that four systems were delivered against a target of three, and that the objective's efficacy is rated substantial only because of limited evidence on final outcomes with output-oriented indicators. The document itself prints no publication date on its face and the World Bank documents search returned no record for the report number, so none is recorded.
↗ The Daily Star, on RAJUK moving building approval online (media)Published 3 May 2019Report on the day RAJUK began issuing land-use clearance and construction permits online, naming the registration site cp.rajukdhaka.gov.bd and recording that the automation programme had been launched by the public works minister in December 2015, roughly three and a half years earlier. The article carries no printed byline date; its CMS timestamp of 1556820000 resolves to midnight of Friday 3 May 2019 in Dhaka time, and the text says the service started the previous day.
↗ The Daily Star, on the draft DAP amendment raising floor area ratios (media)Published 17 August 2025Report on the draft DAP amendment. Carries the gazette date of the Detailed Area Plan 2022-2035, the finding that most of the capital's 68 zones see floor area ratio rise by 20 to 80 per cent, the individual zone figures, the formation of a seven-member advisory committee on 15 December 2024, the in-principle approval at a stakeholders' meeting on 10 August 2025, and the objections of the Bangladesh Institute of Planners.
Show 4 more sourcesShow fewer
↗ The Business Standard, on the DAP amendment approved by the advisory committee (media)Published 19 October 2025Report of the advisory committee meeting held at the housing and public works ministry that gave policy approval to the DAP amendments, raising maximum building height in almost all areas of the capital, with the ministry saying the updated plan would be gazetted. The page also carries a same-day modification stamp of 19 October 2025 20:36, which is not recorded because it does not differ from the publication date.
↗ The Business Standard, on buildings constructed without approved designs (media)Published 26 February 2022Report carrying the 2020 Bangladesh Institute of Planners study on establishments in the RAJUK area without approved designs, and a Transparency International Bangladesh study on bribes paid to secure design approval. The headline figure of 96 per cent is the newspaper's own arithmetic on the institute's two counts; this entry cites the counts rather than the percentage.
↗ The Business Standard, on RAJUK's draft ordinance and regularisation policy (media)Published 16 November 2025Report on RAJUK's draft ordinance and its first policy to assess and regularise structures built without approved designs, recording that RAJUK acknowledges a vast number of buildings in its jurisdiction were built without official design approval. Used for the currency of the unapproved-building problem, not for any figure.
↗ RAJUK, Electronic Construction Permitting System portal (operator)The permitting portal itself, read on 27 August 2026. For an anonymous visitor the page renders the Global Report, Daily Report Mail and Suspended Professionals items with an inline display:none and exposes only a zone and sub-zone lookup, helpline numbers by zone, and notices; everything else is behind the login. The Bengali urgent notice states that submission of plan approval, special project clearance, construction approval and appeal applications is temporarily closed while the system is upgraded to the Dhaka Metropolitan Building Rules 2025, and that applications filed under the previous rules continue to be processed. The footer reads: Electronic Construction Permitting System (ECPS); Urban Resilience Project: RAJUK Part. A live portal states no publication date.

📅 How old is the evidence?

Two clocks, kept apart: when this entry’s sources were published, and what has happened to its record in the atlas. Documented span: since 2021. 7 of 9 sources carry a publication date, from 3 May 2019 to 16 November 2025.

When the sources were published

  1. The Daily Star, on RAJUK moving building approval online (media)
  2. The Financial Express, on the launch of the electronic construction permitting system (media)
  3. The Business Standard, on buildings constructed without approved designs (media)
  4. The Daily Star, on the draft DAP amendment raising floor area ratios (media)
  5. Prothom Alo, on the three-month suspension of RAJUK's online permitting (media)
  6. The Business Standard, on the DAP amendment approved by the advisory committee (media)
  7. The Business Standard, on RAJUK's draft ordinance and regularisation policy (media)

Every source, with links ↑

What happened to this record

  1. Entered the record
  2. Sources last read

Every revision, permanent →

Show your work What this page rests on and what it can’t tell you · all 16 claims with their sources · the forensic record

Evidence Passport · public beta 16 addressable claims, 9 source dossiers, one permanent baseline. The passport is unreviewed — an AI-assisted structural migration, not a human or expert endorsement. Every revision keeps a permanent copy under revision history.

Inspect the claims, one by one — verbatim text, sources and caveats for all 16

The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.

Claim 1 clm-2f4effd2c11d04c5 quantitative
RAJUK, the authority that plans and permits building across greater Dhaka, moved land-use clearance and construction approval online in May 2019
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Prothom Alo's account of how RAJUK went digital states verbatim: 'In May 2019, RAJUK began providing both land-use clearance and construction approval online.' The Daily Star reported the start the day after it happened, naming the registration site cp.rajukdhaka.gov.bd and describing land use clearance and construction permit as 'two fundamental approvals required for constructing a building in the capital'.
Caveat
RAJUK's jurisdiction is the Dhaka metropolitan development plan area, which reaches beyond the two Dhaka city corporations into Gazipur, Narayanganj and Keraniganj, so 'greater Dhaka' is the accurate description and not the city itself.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Prothom Alo, on the three-month suspension of RAJUK's online permitting (media)
  2. The Daily Star, on RAJUK moving building approval online (media)
Claim 2 clm-38a55eb48efec9bb quantitative
replaced that portal with the Electronic Construction Permitting System, launched on 19 September 2021 under the World Bank-financed Urban Resilience Project and built with the US consultancy RTI International
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The Financial Express report of 20 September 2021 describes the launch on the previous day, Sunday 19 September: 'State Minister for Housing and Public Works (MoHPW) Sharif Ahmed inaugurated the ECP system at a ceremony organised by RAJUK's Urban Resilience Project (URP) at a city hotel', and 'The World Bank has been providing financial support to the URP and a US-based consulting firm, RTI International, has been providing other necessary support.' Prothom Alo confirms the same lineage: 'under the World Bank-financed Urban Resilience Project, RAJUK launched the ECPS ... The system was developed by a US-based company called RTI', and separately reports that new applications now go through the ECPS rather than the older portal.
Caveat
RAJUK sources quoted by Prothom Alo date the ECPS to 2023 rather than 2021 and put its cost at Tk 480 million. The September 2021 event is a documented launch ceremony; whether the system entered routine service then or two years later is not resolved by either source, and this entry does not resolve it either.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. The Financial Express, on the launch of the electronic construction permitting system (media)
  2. Prothom Alo, on the three-month suspension of RAJUK's online permitting (media)
Claim 3 clm-7ea0854f00fb2b1e descriptive
ECPS is an account-based workflow rather than a public register: a visitor without a login is offered a zone lookup, helpline numbers and notices, nothing more
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Read directly from the portal on 27 August 2026. The served HTML gives the anonymous role ('rolename = Anonymous') and renders the Global Report, Daily Report Mail and Suspended Professionals navigation items inside containers carrying an inline style="display: none;". What remains visible is the 'Find Zone/Subzone' link, the per-zone helpline numbers and the notice pop-ups; every other function sits behind App_Login. There is no map, no searchable permit register and no published dataset for a visitor without an account.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. RAJUK, Electronic Construction Permitting System portal (operator)
Claim 4 clm-53d52f6dbc9ddf5e quantitative
In August 2026 it was again not accepting new applications, while it was rebuilt around the Dhaka Metropolitan Building Rules 2025
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The portal's Bengali urgent notice, read on 27 August 2026, states that because system upgrade work is under way in accordance with the Dhaka Metropolitan Building Rules 2025, the submission of plan approval, special project clearance, construction approval and appeal applications is temporarily closed, and that processing of applications submitted under the previous rules continues as usual.
Caveat
'Again' refers to the earlier three-month suspension of May to August 2025, which had a different cause. The portal gives no date for the current closure and no date for reopening.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. RAJUK, Electronic Construction Permitting System portal (operator)
Claim 5 clm-e5cdd5991c6b7c19 quantitative
RAJUK's Development Control Division counted 56,729 applications and 42,007 approved buildings between July 2018 and May 2025
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Verbatim: 'RAJUK's Development Control Division reported that a total of 56,729 applications were submitted between July 2018 and May 2025, and 42,007 buildings were approved.' The same paragraph records that officials of the relevant RAJUK department could not give a total for design approvals issued since RAJUK's establishment.
Caveat
These are RAJUK's own counts reported through the press, not an audited series, and the article notes that RAJUK could not produce a total for its whole history.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Prothom Alo, on the three-month suspension of RAJUK's online permitting (media)
Claim 6 clm-c2269a0ef3f4633b descriptive
a span covering both the earlier portal and ECPS
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The window July 2018 to May 2025 begins before the May 2019 launch of the earlier online portal and ends after the ECPS was in use, so the count cannot be attributed to ECPS alone. Prothom Alo sets out the same sequence in the article: limited online land-use clearance from 2016, all zones by 2018, both services online from May 2019, and the ECPS under the Urban Resilience Project thereafter.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Prothom Alo, on the three-month suspension of RAJUK's online permitting (media)
Claim 7 clm-94b81f5371b7fda0 quantitative
officials putting the flow at around a thousand applications a month and a typical approval at 45 days
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Verbatim: 'Officials also noted that each month, around 1,000 applications are filed for design approvals and land-use clearances.' And separately: 'According to RAJUK sources, once an online application is submitted with all required documents, construction approval is typically obtained within 45 days. It may take another 30 days if errors are detected.'
Caveat
Both figures are RAJUK's own statements to the newspaper, not a measured distribution, and the 45 days is the stated norm rather than an observed median.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Prothom Alo, on the three-month suspension of RAJUK's online permitting (media)
Claim 8 clm-f041a8db71da99db descriptive
The World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group, reviewing the project that paid for the system, found that RAJUK started issuing e-permits for construction as targeted
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The Independent Evaluation Group's review covers the Bangladesh Urban Resilience Project (P149493), the project under which RAJUK built the ECPS; its Component C financed 'the infrastructure for an integrated mechanism for land use and zoning clearance and construction permitting system'. On delivery it states verbatim: 'The Capital Development Authority (RAJUK) started issuing e-permits for construction as targeted.'
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. World Bank Independent Evaluation Group, ICR Review of the Bangladesh Urban Resilience Project (independent)
Claim 9 clm-290126935245c2cc descriptive
rated that objective substantial only because of the limited evidence on final outcomes, noting the indicators were output-oriented
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Verbatim: 'Efficacy of this PDO is rated as substantial due to the limited evidence on final outcomes.' The paragraph immediately above states of the same objective: 'These indicators were output-oriented.'
Caveat
The rating covers the whole objective of strengthening systems to reduce the vulnerability of future building construction in Dhaka and Sylhet, of which the permitting system is one of four delivered outputs, not the permitting system on its own.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. World Bank Independent Evaluation Group, ICR Review of the Bangladesh Urban Resilience Project (independent)
Claim 10 clm-3b8fc48201c7451c descriptive
several sub-projects lacked allocated operation and maintenance funding when the project closed
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Verbatim, under Risk to Development Outcome: 'The ICR notes that at the time of project closing, several of the sub-projects financed under the project lacked allocated operation and maintenance funding.'
Caveat
The Independent Evaluation Group writes this of the project's sub-projects in general; it does not name the permitting system as one of them.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. World Bank Independent Evaluation Group, ICR Review of the Bangladesh Urban Resilience Project (independent)
Claim 11 clm-8f9bd41036573b6d quantitative
On 19 May 2025 a design approval for a 15-storey building at Baunia badh in Mirpur, a wetland and height-restricted plot that had already been refused, was issued in seventeen minutes using a RAJUK official's ID and password
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Verbatim: 'a group managed to obtain design approval for a 15-storey building within just 17 minutes on 19 May. The building was located in the Baunia badh area of Mirpur, a wetland and height-restricted zone, and had previously been denied approval.' On the mechanism: 'Sources indicated that the server was not hacked; instead, fraud was carried out using the ID and password of a RAJUK official to obtain approval.' The report notes that RAJUK later claimed its server had been hacked, but that the applicant had paid Tk 154,000 in fees by credit card, which would not have been possible in a hack, and that three people were arrested after police raids in Motijheel.
Caveat
RAJUK's own account was that the server had been hacked. The attribution to a misused official login is what unnamed sources told Prothom Alo, and the newspaper's own reasoning from the card payment; it has not been established by a published investigation or a court.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Prothom Alo, on the three-month suspension of RAJUK's online permitting (media)
Claim 12 clm-f6358b1f94d13ccc descriptive
online services then stayed down for three months
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The report's opening sentence dates the outage: 'The suspension of RAJUK's activities related to approving building construction designs and issuing land-use clearances for three months has placed real estate businesses in Dhaka at financial risk.' It sets out the start, 'On 19 May, after a security vulnerability was detected in the system, all online activities were suspended', and the partial restart, 'RAJUK announced that it would partially resume online operations from 21 August', with nearly 4,500 design approval applications and more than 500 land-use clearance applications pending in the meantime.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Prothom Alo, on the three-month suspension of RAJUK's online permitting (media)
Claim 13 clm-2662bc1f7d586ac5 quantitative
The contract with the firm that maintained the software had expired in June 2024 and no successor had been appointed
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Verbatim: 'The contract with the company Dohatec, which had been responsible for managing RAJUK's software, expired in June 2024. Their job was to maintain and keep the software operational. After the contract ended, no new company was assigned responsibility. RAJUK also lacks its own IT team capable of maintaining the server and software.'
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Prothom Alo, on the three-month suspension of RAJUK's online permitting (media)
Claim 14 clm-6562c7509ccaf9bd quantitative
a 2020 Bangladesh Institute of Planners study counted 21.46 lakh establishments in RAJUK's area of which 20.60 lakh had no approved design at all
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Verbatim: 'According to a 2020 study by the Bangladesh Institute of Planners, the Rajuk area has a total of 21.46 lakh establishments, of which 20.60 lakh do not have approved designs while only 85,500 have followed a proper layout.' The report also cites a Transparency International Bangladesh study on bribes of Tk 5,000 to Tk 100,000 paid to RAJUK officials to proceed with construction.
Caveat
The counts are the institute's, reported through the press; the underlying study was not read directly. A lakh is one hundred thousand, so the figures are about 2.15 million and 2.06 million. The newspaper's headline figure of 96 per cent is its own arithmetic on these two numbers and is not used here.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. The Business Standard, on buildings constructed without approved designs (media)
Claim 15 clm-6cc116404871c232 quantitative
the rulebook the system enforces is itself contested, since the Detailed Area Plan gazetted on 24 August 2022 was reopened under developer pressure
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The Detailed Area Plan is the land-use and floor-area rulebook that a construction permit is checked against. Verbatim from The Daily Star: 'The push to amend DAP began soon after a gazette on it was published on August 24, 2022, with developers and landowners opposing FAR restrictions', and 'At the end of last year, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) began drafting an amendment following intensified lobbying and pressure from real estate developers.' The Business Standard confirms the amendment process was still running as an advisory committee exercise in October 2025.
Caveat
That developer lobbying drove the amendment is the reporting of The Daily Star, which also quotes the environment adviser saying the review followed difficulty among stakeholders in accepting the 2022 plan and the developers' association welcoming the change.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. The Daily Star, on the draft DAP amendment raising floor area ratios (media)
  2. The Business Standard, on the DAP amendment approved by the advisory committee (media)
Claim 16 clm-6bf1a8333624839a quantitative
an advisory committee approved raising floor area ratios across most of the capital on 19 October 2025
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Verbatim from The Business Standard, published the same day: 'The advisory committee reviewing Dhaka's Detailed Area Plan (DAP) 2022-2035 has given policy approval, along with several amendment proposals, raising the maximum building height in almost all areas of the capital', and 'Under the amendments, FAR and population density will increase in almost all areas under Rajuk's jurisdiction.' The Daily Star quantifies the draft: 'Most of the capital's 68 zones have seen a rise in FAR ranging from 20 to 80 percent.'
Caveat
This was policy approval by the committee; The Business Standard reports the ministry saying the updated plan 'will soon be published as a gazette', and no gazette had been confirmed as published at the time of checking.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. The Business Standard, on the DAP amendment approved by the advisory committee (media)
  2. The Daily Star, on the draft DAP amendment raising floor area ratios (media)
Forensic record — source dossiers, gaps, hashes and the exact revision this page renders

This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.

unreviewed Revision 2026-08-26-dhaka-baseline effective 2026-08-26 · created 2026-08-26

Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.

sha256:07979bafd512c93d54adeb0e61f45b23b479f1c4a7842515d52d7cd8ad7ef875
Revision history → Permanent version link → Machine-readable record → Evidence Constitution →
16
of 16 claims mapped
9
source dossiers
7
publication dates recorded
0
archives linked
0
exact locators
0
content captures hashed

Governance facts carried by the record

Operator
Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK), the Capital Development Authority, under the Ministry of Housing and Public Works
Actor types
regional-government
Funding model
public
Funding description
World Bank IDA credit to the Government of Bangladesh under the Urban Resilience Project (P149493); system built with RTI International
Cost
≈Tk 480 million (RAJUK sources), plus about Tk 50 million a year in maintenance
Ownership
Not recorded
Decision rights
Not recorded
Exit conditions
Not recorded

9 source dossiers

Prothom Alo, on the three-month suspension of RAJUK's online permitting (media) en.prothomalo.com · 8 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-79fcf0f89d0d271d
Publisher
Name not classified · en.prothomalo.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2025-08-29
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Reported account of the suspension of design approval and land-use clearance between 19 May and late August 2025. Carries the pending caseload, the 19 May fraudulent approval at Baunia badh, the expired Dohatec maintenance contract, the 6 December 2023 loss of about 30,000 documents, the Development Control Division counts of 56,729 applications and 42,007 approved buildings for July 2018 to May 2025, and the sequence by which RAJUK went online (2016 limited land-use clearance, 2018 all zones, May 2019 both services). RAJUK sources in the same report date the ECPS itself to 2023 at a cost of Tk 480 million; the Financial Express reports the launch ceremony in September 2021, and this entry keeps both readings apart rather than resolving them.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
The Financial Express, on the launch of the electronic construction permitting system (media) today.thefinancialexpress.com.bd · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-07f49b26a36037c7
Publisher
Name not classified · today.thefinancialexpress.com.bd
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2021-09-20
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Report of the launch ceremony held on Sunday 19 September 2021. Names the State Minister for Housing and Public Works as inaugurating the ECP system at a ceremony organised by RAJUK's Urban Resilience Project, records World Bank financing and RTI International as the consulting firm, and lists the memoranda signed with the Institution of Engineers Bangladesh and the Institution of Architects Bangladesh. Read on the newspaper's print mirror because the main domain returns HTTP 403 to automated reading.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
World Bank Independent Evaluation Group, ICR Review of the Bangladesh Urban Resilience Project (independent) documents1.worldbank.org · 3 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-328edd27370d29e6
Publisher
Name not classified · documents1.worldbank.org
Type / language
pdf · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Report ICRR0024647, the Independent Evaluation Group's review of the Bangladesh Urban Resilience Project (P149493, approved 24 March 2015, closed 30 June 2024), which financed the ECPS. It records that RAJUK started issuing e-permits as targeted, that four systems were delivered against a target of three, and that the objective's efficacy is rated substantial only because of limited evidence on final outcomes with output-oriented indicators. The document itself prints no publication date on its face and the World Bank documents search returned no record for the report number, so none is recorded.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
The Daily Star, on RAJUK moving building approval online (media) thedailystar.net · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-e8620d339eeaa994
Publisher
Name not classified · thedailystar.net
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2019-05-03
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Report on the day RAJUK began issuing land-use clearance and construction permits online, naming the registration site cp.rajukdhaka.gov.bd and recording that the automation programme had been launched by the public works minister in December 2015, roughly three and a half years earlier. The article carries no printed byline date; its CMS timestamp of 1556820000 resolves to midnight of Friday 3 May 2019 in Dhaka time, and the text says the service started the previous day.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
The Daily Star, on the draft DAP amendment raising floor area ratios (media) thedailystar.net · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-158c3d5661ca44d7
Publisher
Name not classified · thedailystar.net
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2025-08-17
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
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No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
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Report on the draft DAP amendment. Carries the gazette date of the Detailed Area Plan 2022-2035, the finding that most of the capital's 68 zones see floor area ratio rise by 20 to 80 per cent, the individual zone figures, the formation of a seven-member advisory committee on 15 December 2024, the in-principle approval at a stakeholders' meeting on 10 August 2025, and the objections of the Bangladesh Institute of Planners.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
The Business Standard, on the DAP amendment approved by the advisory committee (media) tbsnews.net · 2 linked claims

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Stable source ID
src-ca6d1c96d32dc5ec
Publisher
Name not classified · tbsnews.net
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2025-10-19
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
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No local capture recorded
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Content hash
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Locator
Open the recorded source note

Report of the advisory committee meeting held at the housing and public works ministry that gave policy approval to the DAP amendments, raising maximum building height in almost all areas of the capital, with the ministry saying the updated plan would be gazetted. The page also carries a same-day modification stamp of 19 October 2025 20:36, which is not recorded because it does not differ from the publication date.

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The Business Standard, on buildings constructed without approved designs (media) tbsnews.net · 1 linked claim

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Stable source ID
src-eebc2688618a3563
Publisher
Name not classified · tbsnews.net
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2022-02-26
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
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Locator
Open the recorded source note

Report carrying the 2020 Bangladesh Institute of Planners study on establishments in the RAJUK area without approved designs, and a Transparency International Bangladesh study on bribes paid to secure design approval. The headline figure of 96 per cent is the newspaper's own arithmetic on the institute's two counts; this entry cites the counts rather than the percentage.

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Claims linked
The Business Standard, on RAJUK's draft ordinance and regularisation policy (media) tbsnews.net · background

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Stable source ID
src-ad7e17b47df65b58
Publisher
Name not classified · tbsnews.net
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2025-11-16
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Report on RAJUK's draft ordinance and its first policy to assess and regularise structures built without approved designs, recording that RAJUK acknowledges a vast number of buildings in its jurisdiction were built without official design approval. Used for the currency of the unapproved-building problem, not for any figure.

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Background source; no baseline claim points here
RAJUK, Electronic Construction Permitting System portal (operator) rajuk.ecps.gov.bd · 2 linked claims

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Stable source ID
src-ed5f1c261a8699f7
Publisher
Name not classified · rajuk.ecps.gov.bd
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The permitting portal itself, read on 27 August 2026. For an anonymous visitor the page renders the Global Report, Daily Report Mail and Suspended Professionals items with an inline display:none and exposes only a zone and sub-zone lookup, helpline numbers by zone, and notices; everything else is behind the login. The Bengali urgent notice states that submission of plan approval, special project clearance, construction approval and appeal applications is temporarily closed while the system is upgraded to the Dhaka Metropolitan Building Rules 2025, and that applications filed under the previous rules continue to be processed. The footer reads: Electronic Construction Permitting System (ECPS); Urban Resilience Project: RAJUK Part. A live portal states no publication date.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Known limits of this passport
  • Publisher names and source languages have not yet been classified; domains are recorded without guessing.
  • Existing source notes are descriptive locators, not page- or paragraph-exact citations.
  • A missing archive, publication date or content hash is shown as null rather than inferred.
  • The project-level evidence grade ranks the strongest source in the entry; it is not a truth score for every claim.

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Compare this project

🇧🇷 Mapa de Manaus: Resurveying a Property Register Frozen Since 2010 · Manaus Manaus resurveyed a frozen property register and published the map; Dhaka digitised the permit and kept it behind a login. 🇩🇪 „Aufenthalt Digital“ Goes AI · Offenbach Two administrative counters moved online, and the same question about both: what the applicant can now see that they could not before. 🇷🇺 mos.ru — Moscow's E-Government Portal · Moscow A portal is not a register. Both cities put services on a screen; neither turned the underlying record into something a stranger can query.

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📎 Cite this project

1001 Smart Cities (2026). “RAJUK Electronic Construction Permitting System (ECPS)” — Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/dhaka-rajuk-permits/ (last verified 2026-08-26). Data: CC BY 4.0.

The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.

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