Feasibility study on metro-rail project to start from Dec
Tuesday, 14 October 2008
The communications ministry has decided to start a Tk 100 million (10 crore) feasibility study from December on an ambitious metro-rail system for the capital, reports bdnews24.com .
The decision was taken at an inter-ministerial review meeting Monday on the proposed Dhaka metro-rail project chaired by communications adviser Ghulam Quader.
The feasibility study is the first step in constructing the mass transit system that will include up to 60 kilometres of subway and elevated rail with the aim of carrying 44,000 people per hour.
"The average speed of traffic in Dhaka is just five kilometres per hour. This situation is intolerable," Ghulam Quader told the meeting.
"We must start the project as soon as possible. We want to rescue the time we have lost," the adviser said.
"It is our failure that we could not implement the project before. Hopefully, we can start the feasibility study by December," communications secretary Mahbubur Rahman told reporters after the meeting at the communications ministry.
The meeting disposed of a sticking point over financing, deciding to complete the feasibility study at a cost of Tk 10 crore from government funds.
The mass transit plan was initially floated in 2002, although protracted bureaucratic wrangling over the feasibility study's funding mechanism left the project hanging.
The debate over funding has seen the communications ministry, who insist the money should be raised from public funds, at loggerheads with the planning ministry, who favour foreign donors.
The decision was taken at an inter-ministerial review meeting Monday on the proposed Dhaka metro-rail project chaired by communications adviser Ghulam Quader.
The feasibility study is the first step in constructing the mass transit system that will include up to 60 kilometres of subway and elevated rail with the aim of carrying 44,000 people per hour.
"The average speed of traffic in Dhaka is just five kilometres per hour. This situation is intolerable," Ghulam Quader told the meeting.
"We must start the project as soon as possible. We want to rescue the time we have lost," the adviser said.
"It is our failure that we could not implement the project before. Hopefully, we can start the feasibility study by December," communications secretary Mahbubur Rahman told reporters after the meeting at the communications ministry.
The meeting disposed of a sticking point over financing, deciding to complete the feasibility study at a cost of Tk 10 crore from government funds.
The mass transit plan was initially floated in 2002, although protracted bureaucratic wrangling over the feasibility study's funding mechanism left the project hanging.
The debate over funding has seen the communications ministry, who insist the money should be raised from public funds, at loggerheads with the planning ministry, who favour foreign donors.