The government is set to introduce an index to assess the level and quality of transport system in the capital city by evaluating the data on 10 indicators, including accidents.
The Sustainable Urban Transport Index (SUTI), developed by United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), has already been introduced in four Asian countries, official sources said.
They said the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges (MoRTB) has taken the move to introduce the SUTI for evaluating the performance of different agencies involved with development of the city urban transport system.
"It will help us quantify the city's transport system and services," said an official who is involved in introducing the SUTI.
He said the SUTI will also help the government achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by improving the transport system.
Sources said the MoRTB has already conducted a baseline study based on the secondary and available data from Revised Strategic Transport Plan and Department of Environment on the 10 indicators and found some of the indicators better. Some field level surveys were also conducted.
Referring to the draft report of the study, they said city's traffic fatality per 100,000 is low, but level of air pollution is high.
Official sources said the findings of the study report will be shared during a capacity building international workshop scheduled for September 12 in the city.
The MoRTB and Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA) will jointly organise the workshop in association with UNESCAP and Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The main objective of the workshop is to introduce the SUTI using the data collection guideline. It will also share the results of the application of SUTI in other cities where the same is being used.
Apart from traffic fatalities and air quality assessment, the workshop will focus on the indicators on convenient access to public transport service, public transport quality and reliability, affordability -- travel costs as part of income, operational costs of public transport system, cost recovery ratio, investment in public transport system and greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles.
Transport or urban transport policymakers in member states or cities, experts and representatives of international organisations are expected to participate in the workshop.
According to UNSCAP website, an excel-based SUTI can reflect the state of urban transport performance in a city. Performance of each indicator is compared on a scale of 1-100 and illustrated in a spider diagram. SUTI is derived by geometric aggregation of ten indicators based on equal weighting.
SUTI tool can help cities assess the achievement of the SDG target 11.2 and support implementation of the new urban agenda.
Pilot application of SUTI was completed in four cities -- Colombo, Jakarta, Hanoi and Kathmandu and the same is now planned for Dhaka, Ho Chi Minh City, Surabaya and Bandung.
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