No progress has yet been made in setting up a multimodal transport hub near the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) despite a plan taken five years ago to facilitate millions of passengers.
Sources said the project, which was supposed to be implemented under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP), is still stuck up with issues of selecting an implementing agency, funding arrangement etc due to lack of cooperation and coordination among different agencies.
Experts said the project was planned to facilitate movement of air and railway passengers, and also those travelling by road in order to help them avail different modes of transport services including mass transit under one roof.
Though initially it was planned to implement the project under the PPP basis, they said, experts are now in doubt about its scope due to building of different big shopping centres near the HSIA. The project is yet to be included in the PPP list of the government.
Officials said initially the project was one of its 13 PPP projects of the Roads and Highway Department (RHD) but it was dropped as it was found not viable.
The project's uncertainty is still there as no decision has been taken to implement it under which fund. Is it from development partner or from the government exchequer?
Transport experts had agreed at a coordination meeting in 2011 to build the multi-level multimodal 'transport hub' over 1.5 acres of land at the Airport Rail Station for using it as an interchanging point for all kinds of passengers.
The recommendation was made in line with the government's initiative to introduce bus rapid transit (BRT) services from Gazipur to Sadarghat. But later experts recommended building of underground tunnel connecting the HSIA terminal with the transport hub to give airport passengers an option for availing mode of transports of their choice to go to different destinations.
The hub was also planned to connect a line of mass rapid transit (MRT) from the airport to the Kamalapur Railway Station and the Dhaka Elevated Expressway. The experts had also proposed to find options for making the project commercially viable by setting up a shopping mall on one layer of the complex and others for transports.
Project Director of BRT, Gazipur-Airport segment, Mohammad Afil Uddin said the BRT made a move to conduct feasibility study of the Multimodal Transport Hub due to change of scenario. As the project's progress has been significant, he said the issue of interchange station at the HSIA was shared with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to find a solution.
smunima@yahoo.com
No progress yet on multimodal transport hub near HSIA
Munima Sultana | Published: February 23, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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