Unplanned urbanisation obstacle for bus rapid route

Building a mass transport system like rapid bus service in Dhaka city has become “much more difficult” as various physical obstacles came along unplanned urbanisation over the past decade, said officials at a workshop in the capital yesterday.    
It would have been much easier in 2005 when Strategic Transport Plan (STP) was formulated, said Anisur Rahman, project director of a 22-kilometre section, from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to Keraniganj, of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).
BRT's remaining 20-kilometre section stretches from Gazipur to the airport.
Running on two central lanes of the existing roads and carrying 16,000 passengers per hour in each direction, BRT expects to provide a disciplined, time-bound and safe bus service and partially resolve the horrendous traffic congestion and subsequent public woes.   
Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA), entrusted to coordinate transport schemes in the capital, organised the workshop at Jatiya Press Club to discuss the BRT scheme's status.
As STP implementation was delayed, several transport schemes like flyovers have come up without coordination with the STP-recommended transport solutions, said DTCA Executive Director Md Kaikobad Hossain.       
About 28 percent of Dhaka dwellers move on foot, 28 by public bus, 39 by rickshaw while only 5 by private cars, they said.    
Frits Olyslager, transport adviser to DTCA, said multi-modal and well-integrated mass transport system and not the stand-alone flyovers can resolve the traffic problem.
BRT will be a profitable business model for the existing bus operators but its construction will be extremely difficult due to various physical constraints along the route and lack of coordination with other schemes, he said.  
The airport to Keraniganj section is being designed in detail with World Bank funding but the US $ 200 million required for the construction is not yet guaranteed, said Anisur Rahman.     
With the detailed design and construction work underway, the Gazipur section of BRT is expected to become operational by 2017 at a cost of US $ 255 million by Roads and Highways Department under the Greater Dhaka Sustainable Urban Transport project, said its project director Afil Uddin.   
The Awami League government, during its preceding tenure, had set the deadline for the Gazipur section by the end of 2013. Traffic police sergeant Md Nurul Momen Ashim also spoke.