& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Rapid Bus Project

Lot of hurdles ahead

Tawfique Ali
Even though the government gave the nod to the formation of a company for a section of the proposed route of the rapid bus service, experts say its implementation will be difficult and could take years.
The government intended to reduce the horrendous congestion problem in the capital with a 45-kilometre Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) route stretching up to Sadarghat from Gazipur. But it requires a dozen elevated overpasses and coordination with other large upcoming projects.
The route comprises two sections—one from Gazipur to Shahjalal International Airport and the other from the airport to Sadarghat—occupying two central lanes of existing roads.
Feasibility studies show that the 20-kilometre-long Gazipur section requires nine elevated overpasses at Joydevpur, Kunia, Cherag Ali, Bhogra, near National University, Abdullahpur, Tongi Station Road, Sonargaon road and Jasimuddin
intersections in Uttara.
It requires replacing the rundown Tongi Bridge with a multi-use eight-lane bridge with a dedicated lane for BRT.
The Sadarghat section requires an elevated overpass at Mohakhali intersection and coordination with the flyover proposed by the LGED from Shantinagar to Satrasta intersection in Tejgaon.
Moreover, its coordination with another proposed flyover from Shantinagar to Dhaka-Mawa highway via North-South Road and across the Buriganga is yet to be settled.
Prof Md Shamsul Hoque, a member of the project's technical steering committee, said it would take several years to overcome these hurdles, as it required massive civil construction work on a heavily-active national highway (Gazipur-airport) stretching through densely built localities.
Project officials earlier said construction of the BRT route would start early this year in the Gazipur section with a target of completing it within the present government's tenure and projected completion of the Sadarghat section by the end of 2014.
Technical experts during a presentation of a prefeasibility report on Gazipur section last July said the implementation of the project would be extremely difficult due to short-sighted urbanisation and lack of coordinated linkages among the proposed flyovers, overpasses, elevated expressways and metro rail.
SM Saleh Uddin, additional executive director of Dhaka Transport Coordination Board (DTCB), however, said project progress was ahead of schedule.
The project is aimed at establishing a disciplined, time-bound and safe bus service to ease public sufferings caused by chaos, poor service and hazards in the conventional transport system.
While a detailed design of the Gazipur section could take several more months, the feasibility of the other section is going on under a project called Clean Air and Sustainable Environment.
The Gazipur section will be built under the Roads and Highways Department while overpasses and flyovers will be constructed under the Bridges Division or Local Government Division. The cabinet last month approved the formation of a special project organisation (SPO) to carry out the implementation of BRT at the Gazipur-airport section under the Roads and Highways Department.
Dhaka Mass Transport Company is to be formed to operate the BRT system after completion.
The cost of the Gazipur section has been estimated at $240 million, of which the ADB is expected to provide $145 million.
Feasibility studies and preliminary design for the Sadarghat section are expected in May, said Anisur Rahman, project director of the section. He added that the final design would take a year more and project completion was not possible before 2015.
He said a process was on to get a $200 million loan from the World Bank to implement the Sadarghat section.
The route of this section passes through Mohakhali, Tejgaon, Moghbazar and Kakrail, Abdul Ghani Road, Golap Shah Mazar, North South Road. The other part goes through Rajarbagh, DIT Extension Road, Bangabhaban, Kaptanbazar, Baldha Garden to Babubazar.
At present, roughly 6,000 buses of different kinds ply the streets of Dhaka, said Prof Md Shamsul Hoque, adding that articulated (popularly known as bendy buses) rapid buses of the BRT system would carry 20,000 passengers per hour in one direction and bring the number of buses down to one-third.
According to Prof Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, a noted civil engineer and transport expert, a speedy commuter train service on the existing Joydevpur-Narayanganj rail line will be a better option at a lot less investment and trouble.