Industrial Growth and Urban Land Requirements in East Pakistan

East Pakistan is currently in the early stages of a major, long-term programme of industrial development. This programme, which has been substantially speeded up under the Second Five Year Plan, is to be further accelerated under the Third Plan. Whether or not such an increased rate of development can be sustained will depend on whether critical bottlenecks in the supply of the basic ingredients of industrial growth can be eliminated or prevented from occurring. One such bottleneck, which is already slowing down industrial expansion and which could completely hobble it under the Third Plan, is the inadequate supply of suitable industrial land. This scarcity of good land for locating new mills and factories is an aspect of the larger problem of the inadequacy of urban land for commercial, residential, public utility and other important uses in almost every part of the province where economic growth is taking place. This problem, which is already quite serious, can be expected to become progressively worse with rising levels of investment and employment.