The four-acre playground in Golartek, Mirpur-1, under Ward 9 of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC), is one of the area’s largest open spaces and is meant for children and teenagers.
But entering the field reveals a very different reality.
On one side, rows of trucks, buses, CNG-run auto-rickshaws, and private cars occupy a large section of the playground.
More than 50 vehicles, mostly seized by Darus Salam Police Station in connection with different cases, have been kept there for years.
The problem dates back to more than a decade.
About two years after Darus Salam Police Station was established in 2008, part of the playground began being used to store seized vehicles.
Since then, the number has fluctuated, but the space has never been fully cleared.
Another section of the field is occupied by abandoned food-court vehicles, further reducing the area available for children to play.
The remaining open space is also in poor condition.
Several slides, swings, and monkey bars are broken and unsafe, yet children continue to use them.
The ground is riddled with potholes and uneven patches, while rainwater collects in several areas during the monsoon, leaving parts of the field muddy and difficult to use.
Sanitation is another concern.
A DNCC-built public toilet stands on one side of the playground, but it remains locked and unusable.
Garbage is scattered across different parts of the field, while some areas are being used as open toilets, creating an unhygienic environment and a persistent foul smell.
As a result, the four-acre field has been steadily losing its function as a recreational space.
Seized vehicles occupy one section, abandoned food-court vehicles another, while broken equipment, damaged ground, stagnant water, waste, and the unusable toilet further restrict access to the remaining space.
The issue of the seized vehicles has been raised repeatedly.
In 2022, then-DNCC mayor Atiqul Islam, along with residents, called for their removal.
The police station assured them that the vehicles would be relocated, but no visible action followed.
Police officials say the vehicles are being retained as case exhibits and that the station has no alternative space to store them.
According to them, the vehicles can only be removed once another location is arranged.
They also said Darus Salam Police Station had written to DNCC seeking an alternative site, but the city corporation has not provided one.
Darus Salam Police Station Officer-in-Charge Dulal Hossain told TIMES: “Storing seized vehicles is a complicated problem for the police.”
He said many vehicles have remained there for years because of complications involving cases and court proceedings.
Although senior authorities have issued instructions at different times regarding their removal, he said the vehicles could not be relocated because no alternative site had been found.
An attempt was made to contact DNCC Chief Estate Officer Mohammad Shawkat Osman for comment, but no response was received.
For a playground intended for children and teenagers, the result is a shrinking and increasingly unsafe recreational space.
Much of the field is occupied by vehicles, while the portion left for play remains poorly maintained and lacks even a functioning public toilet.
The children of Golartek have not lost their playground all at once.
They have lost it slowly: one seized vehicle at a time, one broken swing at a time, one monsoon puddle at a time.
And unless the authorities act, the field will continue to slip further from their reach, with no space left for them to run or play.
