"The aim of putting up the gates is to welcome inbound travellers to Dhaka and highlight the beauty of the city," said Md. Shirajul Islam, DCC's chief town planner of DCC who is also a member of the 'Dhaka Gate' jury board.

"During the last four years we have tried very hard to make the city look beautiful and attractive and setting up 'Gates' at the four entrances is another part of the project," said Syed Qudratullah, superintendent engineer and project director of Dhaka Urban Transport Project (DUTP).

"If a visitor gets a good impression as he enters Dhaka, along with it's attraction, the likelihood of interest in investments in Bangladesh could be embedded in their minds, which will in turn increase the economic growth of the country," he said, adding that 'first impressions count a lot".

The proposal to put up new gates that will highlight the Bengali culture and tradition came from Prime Minister's office.

The first phase of the process will be the gate in Uttara near Tongi Bridge, followed by one at Aminbazar in Gabtoli. The third will be at the Dhaka entry point on the Dhaka- Chittagong highway and two more near Bridges 1 and 2 of the Buriganga river.

Dr Kamal Uddin Siddique, chief secretary of Prime Minister presided over a meeting titled "Good Governance and Development" on February 7, 2005 and discussed the matter of five gates for Dhaka City. After the Prime Minister's approval to build the Dhaka Gates, a five -member jury board was formed regarding the design of the gate.

Under the recommendation of the board on January 26 this year tenders were floated for the model and design that should have been submitted by February 15. But when the board sat for review on February 27, it found only seven models and design received out of the 13 schedules sold.

Finding the model and the design of the gates not up to the mark, the board sat at another meeting on March 14, presided by Dr Idris Miah, DCC's chief engineer where it called for tenders a second time.

In the first meeting tenders were sought from only architectural institutions, but the second meeting opened tenders to architecture, architectural institutions, students of architecture and fine arts to submit their designs.