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$5.2b transport plan for Dhaka okayed

Staff Correspondent
The communications ministry yesterday approved the Strategic Transport Plan (STP), a S5.2 billion mass transport scheme incorporating an underground railway system, to ease traffic congestion and improve the communications system in Dhaka.
The ministry' will send the plan to the council of advisers in a week for approval. The project will commence on completion of a two -year feasibility study and will take 20 years to complete.
Other components of the project are development of traffic management, introduction of bus rapid transit (BRT). non-motorised transport (NMT) lanes, pedestrian facilities and railways, and completion of eastern porUQjj^f the ci^^-
lar waterways.
BRT allows buses to operate on exclusive bus-only lanes separated from other types of traffic and usually permits high speed and thus helps ease traffic congestion.
On November 4, 2007, the government decided to introduce metro service before starting the work of elevated expressway or light rail under the STP.
The metro, involving $3.1 billion, will have underground railway service from Tongi and Gabtoli to Jatrabari and from Gulshan-2 to Gulshan-1 via Asad Gate, Shyamoli and Mohammadpur, SM Salehuddin, additional executive director of Dhaka Transport Coordination Board, told the reporters at a briefing in the communi ca tio ns minis cry yes terd ay. FROM PAGE 1
There will be 50 road projects under STP and the east-west road connection will be a key feature of the development of the city communications system, he said.
Communications Adviser Maj Gen (retd). Ghulam Quader said development partners including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have expressed their willingness to fund the project. "So money won't be a problem in implementing it," he added.
He, however, said that to build a subway in an overcrowded city like Dhaka would not be very easy, as such a major construction would require stoppage of traffic movement for a long time.
Asked whether the government has any plans to improve the existing communications system, he said, "The existing facilities and infrastructure won't do, we'll have to find alternatives."
The adviser said that the rail crossings in the city cause heavy traffic jam and his ministry is also thinking about a way out to reduce traffic congestion and ease transportation for the city-dwellers.
Saying that the state-owned RRTC (Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation) management has improved, he stressed the need to improve its service more.