Metro rail route may not go beyond Motijheel point
Thursday, 5 May 2011
Munima Sultana
The cost of the first-ever metro rail construction in the city's busiest corridor is likely to drop due to cut in its length by two kilometres, the metro rail study team said. The study team earlier found the 21.5 kilometre metro rail was feasible from Pallabi to Sayedabad through the elevated way, for which the cost had been estimated at US$ 1.7 billion. Although the team proposed the route's crossing Rokeya Sarani, Farmgate, Shahbagh and Dhaka University (DU), the veterinary hospital and Gulistan to reach Sayedabad, the government has requested to divert it by a distance of about 6.0km to avoid conflicts with the university authorities and under-construction Jatrabari flyover. It suggested the team to conduct further studies upto Sayebadbad from Doyel Chattar of DU, Paltan and Motijheel. Officials, however, said the study team which earlier agreed to conduct the study on the route from Dhaka University regretted to go beyond Motijheel due to lack of space. "In order to avoid acquiring private land between Motijheel and Sayedabad and due to the increase in the project cost, the government for the moment is not thinking of going ahead with the metro rail after Motijheel point," said a senior official. He, however, said the government would plan to introduce buses from Motijheel to help metro commuters travel to Sayedbad. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)-funded study team leader Toshio Kimura said the team would calculate the actual cost of the metro rail after the end of the study on the revised route. He said from the beginning, the JICA study tried to avoid acquiring land on the entire route to ascertain uninterrupted implementation of the mass transport construction in the traffic jam-ridden Dhaka city. The length of the metro rail known as mass rapid transit (MRT) from Dhaka University to Motijheel is around four kilometres and from Bangladesh Bank to Sayebadbad through Golapbagh the distance is likely to be 1.4 km. The study team working under Dhaka Urban Transport Network Development Study project has already completed the second phase feasibility study of the metro rail last March with funding from JICA. It started working on the revised alignment in mid-April upon government request. Introducing MRT is one of the priority projects of the present government to provide accessibility and mobility for people between old Dhaka and new settlements with a target to reduce vehicle operation cost and travel time. It has already announced to start the construction before the end of its tenure and sought a loan of US $ 1.7 billion from Japan. The government and JICA also signed an agreement last February setting a number of guidelines to be met by the government to ensure smooth implementation of the metro rail.
The cost of the first-ever metro rail construction in the city's busiest corridor is likely to drop due to cut in its length by two kilometres, the metro rail study team said. The study team earlier found the 21.5 kilometre metro rail was feasible from Pallabi to Sayedabad through the elevated way, for which the cost had been estimated at US$ 1.7 billion. Although the team proposed the route's crossing Rokeya Sarani, Farmgate, Shahbagh and Dhaka University (DU), the veterinary hospital and Gulistan to reach Sayedabad, the government has requested to divert it by a distance of about 6.0km to avoid conflicts with the university authorities and under-construction Jatrabari flyover. It suggested the team to conduct further studies upto Sayebadbad from Doyel Chattar of DU, Paltan and Motijheel. Officials, however, said the study team which earlier agreed to conduct the study on the route from Dhaka University regretted to go beyond Motijheel due to lack of space. "In order to avoid acquiring private land between Motijheel and Sayedabad and due to the increase in the project cost, the government for the moment is not thinking of going ahead with the metro rail after Motijheel point," said a senior official. He, however, said the government would plan to introduce buses from Motijheel to help metro commuters travel to Sayedbad. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)-funded study team leader Toshio Kimura said the team would calculate the actual cost of the metro rail after the end of the study on the revised route. He said from the beginning, the JICA study tried to avoid acquiring land on the entire route to ascertain uninterrupted implementation of the mass transport construction in the traffic jam-ridden Dhaka city. The length of the metro rail known as mass rapid transit (MRT) from Dhaka University to Motijheel is around four kilometres and from Bangladesh Bank to Sayebadbad through Golapbagh the distance is likely to be 1.4 km. The study team working under Dhaka Urban Transport Network Development Study project has already completed the second phase feasibility study of the metro rail last March with funding from JICA. It started working on the revised alignment in mid-April upon government request. Introducing MRT is one of the priority projects of the present government to provide accessibility and mobility for people between old Dhaka and new settlements with a target to reduce vehicle operation cost and travel time. It has already announced to start the construction before the end of its tenure and sought a loan of US $ 1.7 billion from Japan. The government and JICA also signed an agreement last February setting a number of guidelines to be met by the government to ensure smooth implementation of the metro rail.