Priority-setting, firm resolve important for executing important projects
Engineer Shafiqul Alam | Thursday, 26 February 2009
DEVELOPMENT of a country always depends on the correct and prompt decision and willingness to execute the necessary tasks of the decision makers. In spite of having all sorts of possibility Bangladesh is struggling in all the sectors due to the absence of proper and timely decision, along with the lack of knowledge of the decision-makers or their reluctance.
Time flows and new government takes the power but the same thing is happening as an ongoing process. Nobody goes to the depth. In the 90s, there was an easy chance for free-optic fiber connectivity but we were not aware of the importance of that. And that's why, later we had to pay a huge amount of money for the same job.
Dhaka is at the heart of the country in all aspects, so it should be made livable as early as possible. Why is the horizontal expansion the main job in the detailed area plan of Dhaka city? The expansion should be vertical. Lots of buildings are two- or three-storeyed but those should be made high-rise. Government should emphasise the need for providing arrangements for underground parking up to three or four levels beneath the ground. People are already tired due to traffic congestion and absence of comfortable mode of transport. We, the city dwellers have never seen any effective work regarding traffic congestion but some unnecessary works like signaling, footpath widening, traffic diversion etc. Removal of congestion is a completely technical and financial matter that varies from city to city. Selection of transport mode to remove congestion is a technical matter first whether it would be MRT, LRT or BRT. As the consideration factors are: Population; percentile of roads; future expansion; fuel; environmental factors; construction method; quakes; coverage; and track records etc.
The above-mentioned factors are completely technical. Now there are financial, commercial and other factors like: IRR; risks assessment; construction method (cost effective); fare (socio-economic aspect); economic gain etc.; and subsidy factor.
Considering these factors, it might so happen that financial and commercial factors get the upper hand for selection of the mass transport mode and reversibly in other city the technical factors might get the dominant rule.
Dhaka is an overcrowded city of a poor country. It is the center for country's business, trade, commerce, education etc. Its population has already exceeded 14 million where the city area is very small with a negligible percentile of roads. Smooth traffic movement in the city is absolutely impossible in a hot humid polluted environment. Light rail transit like monorail or sky-train can't handle a traffic load like that of Dhaka. Bus rapid transit is also unacceptable due to less passenger carrying capacity and environmental pollution with wastage of valuable fuel. Metro rail can provide a comfortable, risk-free journey with high frequency and many more passenger than any other alternative. Some think that the cost of LRT is less than that of MRT but the claim is not authentic. It has found that the cost of LRT is higher than that of metro rail in some cities. We have seen the rejected proposal of monorail for Dhaka (1998) where the cost was about Taka 60 billion (6000 crore) with the fares in dollar. The metro rail project cost as per 2005 is Taka 62 billion (6200 crore) -- that would be about Taka 80-90 billion (8000-9000 crore) for the price escalation of construction materials -- with a fare less than that of bus following the Indian concept. Cost is same but the subway can carry 70,000 passengers per hour per direction where as monorail can only 20,000 passengers.
Following the example of the city of Osaka in Japan, cut and cover method at a shallow depth along the road side is the best possible combination for Dhaka to make the metro rail affordable to all classes of people to cut down cost. TBM at deep layer with huge cost involvement (CUT & COVER is a must for stations) would definitely be an unaffordable mode for medium and lower class people. Upper-class people have their personal transports so consideration should be given for caring of the middle and lower class income groups. We can use TBM for the second network beneath the first one in future, depending on demand.
Once metro is completed, then there would be the requirement for expressways (toll-way) to facilitate the movement of light traffic & highway traffic.
It has been found that the subway project of one company has been pending for last six years and last of all, the project got the clearance of the council of advisers of the last caretaker government in January '08. In a project like subway, finance is not a matter of great concern. The JBIC provides financial supports in subway projects, syndication is another way. A number of alternatives is there.
Reluctance on the part of the decision makers should be removed as early as possible for the greater benefit of the city dwellers. The decision-makers have to be more pro-active to select the most effective proposal/project.
The writer may be reached at
e-mail: [email protected]
Time flows and new government takes the power but the same thing is happening as an ongoing process. Nobody goes to the depth. In the 90s, there was an easy chance for free-optic fiber connectivity but we were not aware of the importance of that. And that's why, later we had to pay a huge amount of money for the same job.
Dhaka is at the heart of the country in all aspects, so it should be made livable as early as possible. Why is the horizontal expansion the main job in the detailed area plan of Dhaka city? The expansion should be vertical. Lots of buildings are two- or three-storeyed but those should be made high-rise. Government should emphasise the need for providing arrangements for underground parking up to three or four levels beneath the ground. People are already tired due to traffic congestion and absence of comfortable mode of transport. We, the city dwellers have never seen any effective work regarding traffic congestion but some unnecessary works like signaling, footpath widening, traffic diversion etc. Removal of congestion is a completely technical and financial matter that varies from city to city. Selection of transport mode to remove congestion is a technical matter first whether it would be MRT, LRT or BRT. As the consideration factors are: Population; percentile of roads; future expansion; fuel; environmental factors; construction method; quakes; coverage; and track records etc.
The above-mentioned factors are completely technical. Now there are financial, commercial and other factors like: IRR; risks assessment; construction method (cost effective); fare (socio-economic aspect); economic gain etc.; and subsidy factor.
Considering these factors, it might so happen that financial and commercial factors get the upper hand for selection of the mass transport mode and reversibly in other city the technical factors might get the dominant rule.
Dhaka is an overcrowded city of a poor country. It is the center for country's business, trade, commerce, education etc. Its population has already exceeded 14 million where the city area is very small with a negligible percentile of roads. Smooth traffic movement in the city is absolutely impossible in a hot humid polluted environment. Light rail transit like monorail or sky-train can't handle a traffic load like that of Dhaka. Bus rapid transit is also unacceptable due to less passenger carrying capacity and environmental pollution with wastage of valuable fuel. Metro rail can provide a comfortable, risk-free journey with high frequency and many more passenger than any other alternative. Some think that the cost of LRT is less than that of MRT but the claim is not authentic. It has found that the cost of LRT is higher than that of metro rail in some cities. We have seen the rejected proposal of monorail for Dhaka (1998) where the cost was about Taka 60 billion (6000 crore) with the fares in dollar. The metro rail project cost as per 2005 is Taka 62 billion (6200 crore) -- that would be about Taka 80-90 billion (8000-9000 crore) for the price escalation of construction materials -- with a fare less than that of bus following the Indian concept. Cost is same but the subway can carry 70,000 passengers per hour per direction where as monorail can only 20,000 passengers.
Following the example of the city of Osaka in Japan, cut and cover method at a shallow depth along the road side is the best possible combination for Dhaka to make the metro rail affordable to all classes of people to cut down cost. TBM at deep layer with huge cost involvement (CUT & COVER is a must for stations) would definitely be an unaffordable mode for medium and lower class people. Upper-class people have their personal transports so consideration should be given for caring of the middle and lower class income groups. We can use TBM for the second network beneath the first one in future, depending on demand.
Once metro is completed, then there would be the requirement for expressways (toll-way) to facilitate the movement of light traffic & highway traffic.
It has been found that the subway project of one company has been pending for last six years and last of all, the project got the clearance of the council of advisers of the last caretaker government in January '08. In a project like subway, finance is not a matter of great concern. The JBIC provides financial supports in subway projects, syndication is another way. A number of alternatives is there.
Reluctance on the part of the decision makers should be removed as early as possible for the greater benefit of the city dwellers. The decision-makers have to be more pro-active to select the most effective proposal/project.
The writer may be reached at
e-mail: [email protected]