City traffic situation worsening
Rail-based mass rapid transit (MRT) or bus rapid transit (BRT) has become crucial for the capital to find a way out of perennial gridlock, experts said at a workshop yesterday.
“It has to be resolved first whether it should be MRT or BRT or a combination and how to develop it,” said Prof Alamgir Mojibul Hoque of the civil engineering department at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet).
The workshop titled 'Towards better urban transport in Dhaka' was organised by Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) at a city hotel to present Dhaka Urban Transport Network Development Study (DHUTS).
The 20-year Strategic Transport Plan (STP) for Dhaka clearly suggests that each of the transport components should be developed in an integrated manner so that one does not foil the other, said Prof Hoque.
The MRT is extremely expensive and the government has not only to settle how to develop it but also subsidise it heavily, said Tamaoki Wantanabe, Jica project formulation adviser.
A total of 23 million trips in various modes take place in the Dhaka metropolitan area every day, said Dr Yoichi Sakurada, deputy team leader of DHUTS.
“Of the total trips, 8.4 millions are done with rickshaw, 7.5 millions by city buses and 4.1 millions on foot,” said Sakurada.
The survey of 20 bus routes taken both from north-south and east-west directions shows that travel speed by bus in Dhaka city during peak hour is 14 kilometres per hour while it is 18 kilometres during off-peak hour, he said.
There are 1500 bus owners who operate around 15000 buses in city routes in utterly chaotic manner and do not follow schedules and frequencies, said Dr SM Salehuddin, additional executive director of Dhaka Transport Coordination Board (DTCB).
“Around 60 to 70 percent of the minibuses plying in city streets are unauthorised,” he said.
“The bus sector is poorly managed and lacks discipline and we need route-franchising,” said Salehuddin, adding, “There is also lack of political commitment to resolve traffic problem.”
There are 150 bus routes in the city that are not scientifically designed, he said, adding, the traffic situation in Dhaka is worsening everyday.
Prof Hoque said there are around 2500 kilometres roads in 1530 square kilometres area of Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan of which only 250 kilometres roads are suitable for public transport.
DTCB Executive Director M Abu Bakar Md Shahjahan, DHUTS Team Leader Toshio Kimura and Deputy Team Leader Dr Yoshihiro Asano also attended the workshop chaired by Prof Hoque.
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