The World Bank (WB) has in principle agreed to finance in the country's third mass transport project to establish 20-kilometre bus rapid transit (BRT) lane for running buses in dedicated lane from Airport to Jhilmil project area.
After a meeting with the WB mission last week, officials of the Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA) said the mission hinted about financing US$ 250 million for the BRT line-3 project.
"If everything goes accordingly, the entire BRT project cost would be borne by WB," said an official.
WB has been providing technical support to carry out the feasibility study and detailed design of the BRT line-3, recommended in the 20-year-long policy guideline, Strategic Transport Plan (STP).
However, WB has been dillydallying to extend its cooperation for implementation of the BRT line-3 development project due to its conflicts with some other development projects, including the Mogbazar-Mouchak flyover project.
Conflict with the flyover arose, as its construction began with the design done in 2005, and it did not accommodate the dedicated lane for the BRT buses when the contract was signed in 2012.
Earlier in March this year, the WB mission expressed deep concern over lack of coordination in road intersection plans and projects for Dhaka city, following lack of coordination among the government agencies concerned, and asked the government to resolve the problems.
The officials said during the last three months, several meetings were held with the Local Government Engineering Department in this regard.
"There will be better coordination soon between the BRT project and the flyover project, as both sides are positive to resolve the problems for the sake of improving the city's chronic traffic congestion," said the official.
When asked, WB communication officer Meherin Mahbub told the FE that the BRT line-3 project is one the important projects of WB, and it is still in the planning stage.
However, due to delay in getting WB assurance, progress of the project has been far behind another BRT project, which is to start from Gazipur under the financial support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
DTCA, the executing agency of the BRT-3, has started detailed design after signing contract with a joint venture Korean firm in February.
The ADB-funded BRT project, known as Dhaka BRT, has recently completed mid-level design consultation last month. But the major coordination is still lagging behind due to making no progress in setting up the multimodal transport hub at Airport station, which is to link the two BRTs as a stoppage.
During the last mission visit, the 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 from Kuril Flyover to Sayedabad, crossing Bishwaroad.
The WB mission also demanded coordination of the proposed BRT line-3 with the ADB-funded BRT, so that it runs in single operation for the entire corridor. It asked 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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