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'Drop expressway-like projects, boost rly'

Staff Correspondent
Experts at a discussion yesterday suggested improving rail communication between Dhaka and the neighbouring districts instead of implementing some mega projects like elevated expressway that involve a huge amount of money.
These projects will serve only a small number of people and increase pressure on the already overburdened city, they said.
An urban planning expert, Khandakar Niyaz Rahman, said it is possible to facilitate travel of around two crore people by introducing commuter trains on the routes of Dhaka-Mymensingh, Dhaka-Tangail, Dhaka-Comilla, and Dhaka-Laxam.
Instead, the government has been moving to construct costly elevated expressway, which will serve only two percent people of the city, he said.
The discussion, "Railway Ministry: People's
Expectation and Duties, was organised jointly by the urban and regional planning department of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet), Bangladesh Institute of Planners, Save the Environment Movement, and WBB Trust.
Suggesting giving top priority to the railway in the communication sector, Abu Naser Khan, chairman of Save the Environment Movement, said it is necessary to prepare a railway-based integrated communication system where railwaywill be the backbone.
He said the international organisations like the World Bank, the IMF, and the ADB have destroyed the sector in a planned way to start private car-based communication system.
Supporting introduction of commuter trains, Railways Minister Suranjit Sengupta said people have to convince all political parties to give more attention to the sector instead of the mega projects.
Railway is a government property and it will
have to be protected by any cost, he said, adding that the conspiracy to destroy the railway sector is still underway.
Suranjit said his ministry would launch commuter train service within the tenure of the government. He, however, but did not elaborate on the routes.
Abu Taher, director general of Bangladesh Railway, blamed shortage of staff to maintain the timetable of the trains and said a total of 160 railway stations out of440 throughout the country have been closed.
Praising the move of Suranjit to develop the sector, Communist Party of Bangladesh President Manzurul Ahsan Khan said he [Suranjit] is still on the right track. The government should give full importance to the railway sector, which is environment friendly, cheaper, and comfortable, he said.
President of BIP Dr Golam Rahman, Syed Mahbubul Alam of WBB Trust, and consultant of strategic transport planning Mustafizur Rahman also addressed the discussion.