The World Bank (WB) has recently expressed deep concern about lack of coordination in road intersection plans and projects for Dhaka city.
The Bank said it was particularly worried about the fate of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line-3.
It had assisted the Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA) in carrying out the feasibility study on the BRT line-3.
The WB had recommended establishing the 20 km dedicated bus lane from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to Jhilmil project through Moghbazar crossing.
Sources said a mission of the World Bank raised the issue of lack of coordination among government agencies particularly in the case of the Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover recently and asked the government to resolve the problems immediately.
World Bank country director Johannes Zutt in a letter, dated March 24 last, to the Economic Relations Division (ERD) also shared the mission's concern and said the bank was extremely concerned over the institutional challenge in effectively coordinating various intersection plans and projects taken by different agencies.
"Specially some agencies are undertaking or proposing projects that would create conflicts with the proposed BRT line-3 and so would adversely affect implementation and effectiveness of the BRT investment," the WB country chief said.
The letter addressed to the ERD Secretary specially referred to the Moghbazar-Malibagh flyover project.
He mentioned about the flyover project's progress and said the currently proposed design would significantly impact the BRT line-3.
This BRT line is also to connect another BRT project being funded by the Asian Development Bank to have a dedicated bus lane from Gazipur to the international airport. Both the mass transport projects are now in detailed design stage.
Officials said despite several efforts taken by the DTCA, coordination with the Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover could not be possible due to lack of cooperation by the LGED.
The Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) is implementing the 8.25 kilometre Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover on the basis of the detailed design done in 2005. The work was awarded in 2012 and the LGED project office said that it is not possible to ensure coordination in the case of an under- construction project.
However, the WB has set a timeframe for the DTCA to resolve the coordination problem and urged the government to undertake effective measures to tackle the institutional challenge so that design and operation of BRT line-3 were not be substantially and adversely affected.
The WB mission reviewed the BRT line-3 project with the ministry of communications, the DTCA and the ERD during its visit on March 10-13 which, officials said, showed its interest in investing in the BRT line-3 project for improving urban transport in Dhaka.
The mission during its meetings also found the possibility of funding the BRT line-1 in parallel with the BRT line-3 as it may help reduce the travel demand of the latter. The BRT line-1 is to start from Kuril flyover to cross the Biswa road upto Sayedabad.
The WB mission also demanded coordination of proposed BRT line-3 with the ADB-funded BRT so that it runs in single operation for entire corridor. It asked the DTCA to set up a project monitoring unit (PMU) for strong coordination with the PMU of the ADB-funded BRT project.
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