The government has backtracked on its decision to implement the Tk 20 billion bus-based mass transit line project in the city, pushing another plan to modernise Mohakhali bus terminal into uncertainty, sources said.
They said the decision to stop work on the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line-3 has been taken to reduce public sufferings due to slow progress in construction work on the northern side of the BRT line, that is from Gazipur to Airport.
But sources said the decision was taken to avoid its overlap on other projects being executed on the same corridor.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges (MoRTB) has already informed the project's financier World Bank of the decision, saying that the project has been stopped for the time being.
"It is mainly to mitigate public sufferings on the Gazipur-Airport corridor for a long time due to failure to complete the BRT line in time," said an official preferring not to be named.
He said the first phase of Dhaka Elevated Expressway (DEE) on the same alignment made good progress, so the government expected that traffic congestion on the corridor would ease without the BRT line-3.
As one of the seven mass transit lines proposed in the Strategic Transport Plan (STP), the BRT line-3 had been in the WB's pipeline for funding in 2021.
The Gazipur-Airport BRT line, funded by Asian Development Bank, saw a very slow progress over the last seven years. Official records showed that only 44 per cent physical work was done until last month. The project's tenure has been extended for the fourth time until June 2022 from June 2020.
The BRT-3 has been facing the problems since the project's preparatory work launched in 2012 as per the STP.
Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority had faced problems at the stage of finalizing the corridor based on a feasibility study and as per a detailed design due to its overlap on different other projects.
Different government agencies took up various projects beyond the STP including Moghbazar-Malibagh-Mouchak flyover and Dhaka-Mawa flyover which blocked the 20-kilometre BRT-3 corridor at different points. It had been planned to run from Airport to Sadarghat as per the STP 2005.
But the project was later revived after transport experts suggested implementing a part of the line up to Mohakhali incorporating a plan to upgrade the Mohakhali Bus Terminal into multimodal transport hub.
It was aimed to ease traffic congestion at the bus terminal that has already been saturated with buses, which are more than the terminal capacity.
The WB came forward to help in implementation of a part of BRT-3 as it funded the feasibility study and detailed design. It also considered the project's importance in transiting thousands of passengers towards the city centre.
The two BRT projects were then named as BRT North and BRT South.
Sources said the government's decision to stop BRT-3 work is also linked with fresh problems with the under-construction DEE, U-loops and a flyover near Mohakhali, all located on the same corridor with small distances between then.
The DEE and BRT-3 will have to cross the Mohakhali flyover with two separate tiers, making the mass transit to link easily with Mohakhali Bus Terminal.
smunima@yahoo.com