Following a path of rapid growth of Dhaka Metropolitan city, from the perspective of population, has emerged as a mega city. About 10 million people (10% of the total population) are now living in this city. How far it has been able to attain sustainable development has appeared as the most crucial question not only before the urban planners but also before urban dwellers for multidimensional problems handicapping urban life with the corresponding effect also on the rural societies in Bangladesh. This article examines the urban realities in the Dhaka city from the perspective of sustainable urban development. Sustainable urban development primarily designates to the capacity of the urban development process within its institutional framework and environmental supra system to fulfill the requirements of urban society. For attaining sustainable level, urban system must have accelerated organizational/institutional capacity and financial strength to achieve its goal and simultaneously must have acceptance of the people concerned as well as support from global forces having influences on the country’s development efforts as a whole and on the urban centres of their interest. However, the most important issues related to sustainable development are in brief as follows:

1)  Organizational capability of urban development process includes the capability of organizations responsible for planning and implementation of urban services such as gas, electricity, water supply, transport facilities, housing facilities, maintenance of law and order situation, employment opportunities etc. For sustainable development these services need to be properly ensured in the cities.

2)  Financial strength is closely linked up with the organizational capability of the urban development process and sustainable urban development. Without financial strength need of the people can not be addressed. Sustainable financial strength is necessary, which depends on the sources of income, specially on the own sources of income to meet capital and current expenditures related to development process.

3)  Thirdly, the acceptance of people is the product of the satisfaction of the people and congruence of urban realities with the cultural makeup of the people. In the total process of sustainable urban development ‘people’ is determining factor, because of its influence on size, qualities, as well as the socio-economic realities surrounding the people determines the dimension of urbanization including its geographical coverage, ratio between man and facilities, and so on. Urban need and problems have their origin from people and financial strength is also measured by the satisfaction of people's need. Moreover people have active role in urban development process. To be more specific, the forces moulding the process of urbanization resulting in the expansion of urban areas and migration of people to particular city have important role in the process of sustainable urban development. Broadly speaking urban development affected by the push factors is not same as that affected by pull factors. Hence rural urban relationship in terms of participation in planning implementation benefit sharing and monitoring and evaluation has great influence on the urban realities. All these issues again influence the organizational capability and financial strength of the urban development process.

4)       The outside forces also affect urbanization process in the developing countries.  To Breese it is “dramatically illustrated by the impact of World War- I and particularly World War II” (Breese 466:33). Still the outside forces have important role in shaping the urban development process in these countries. However, the global perspective of sustainable urban development considers the issues related to global linkage of the country and the concerning urban centre. This is because, the urban centers have strongly been tied up with the market system of global capitalism and have become as the most effective points of influences, due to the concentration all political, administrative, economic and technological powers in the urban centres.