Prospect of metro-rail (subway) in capital city
Saturday, 11 October 2008
Engineer Shafiqul Alam
Transport must be a contributor, not a burden, to our quality of life. The air we breathe cannot be the price we have to pay for the use of transport to work and back. But it is a matter of utter dismay that the city dwellers are facing nagging traffic congestion, breathing polluted air and being exposed to sound pollution everyday. But what measures the authorities are taking to get rid of the situation is a matter of serious thinking. Congestion in transportation in a mega-city like Dhaka is a topic of long discussion. The perspective of solving this problem can vary from person to person. However, the solution to this nagging problem cannot wait as the city is becoming more unmanageable every passing day.
One may choose monorail with the light metro that runs on a single beam for Dhaka. Though it may seem beautiful, the reality is that the monorail can carry fewer passengers with less speed than heavy metro (subway) system. There is also the system of BRT on a fixed lane. However, it has the disadvantage that it pollutes very much. On the other hand, it caters to only 4000-5000 passengers per hour. We cannot forget here that ours is a city of over 13 million people. Moreover, thousands of people are coming to the center from the country. If only 30 per cent of the city's total population use the transport, then how is BRT going to serve that huge number of passengers? One thing has to be kept in mind that the population of Dhaka is increasing by leaps and bounds.
There is occasional water-logging in the city during the rainy season. This may lead one to think that the heavy metro (subway) system for Dhaka may be unsuitable. But one needs to remember here that selection of mass transit system is not affected by occasional water-logging, rather it entirely depends on the population density of a particular city. There is hardly any reason for the subway tunnel to be submerged by flood or excessive rainfall, since during the designing phase of the station, high flood level is duly considered. There are two under-passes in Dhaka but this scribe has never seen any of those under-passes getting submerged in water. And there is underground parking up to three or four levels beneath the ground without any problem at all.
In 2007, a light metro in Japan failed due to earthquake but this has never happened in case of subway as the underground tunnel can withstand quake up to a magnitude of Richter scale 9.2.
Subway is subsidised in many cities but in the recent past many subways have touched the profit zone such as Tokyo and New York subways. The subway in Hong Kong is also profitable and the MTRC of Hong Kong has completed some BOT projects and all of those are profitable. They have even made the losing projects profitable. Eidan subway of Tokyo was once subsidised by Japanese government, but it has now become profitable after privatisation. It is not hard to understand why it is so, if one makes a comparison between Grameen Phone and T&T. Grameen has more than twenty million subscribers. But what is the situation of T&T in spite of its huge set-up? The same thing is true of TeleTalk.
The Ministry of Communications has sent the proposal of Contech Ltd., to the Planning Commission a number of times, seeking fund to conduct feasibility study for the metro rail. But Planning Commission has rejected it every time. But if metro rail is not feasible, then how did BR invite tender in 2002? Though there is no scope for spending government of Bangladesh (GOB) fund in a BOT project, still every year local money is drained out to the foreign country for consultancy purposes.
Cost and time for the construction of subway may vary from city to city depending on the traffic flow pattern, depth, method, etc. China has constructed a number of lines within the shortest possible time in the recent past. In Delhi, the construction was very quick and the Bangalore metro is also in good shape, which is an ongoing project. Cut and cover at a shallow depth keeping the provision for future expansion is always a cheap and easy process if the labour cost is cheap. But tunneling by TBM is always slow and expensive, where cut and cover is a must for the stations.
The private project had got worldwide popularity in the last few years. In Bangladesh, this practice has to be started very soon. Before that, the procedures have to be well understood. There has to be a proposal for PPP, BOT, BOOT, SOT etc. Feasibility is the headache of the investor. Financial matters come into consideration at the stages IV & V, Maximum facilities should be offered by the government to the private sector according to the BPSIG, etc.
The metro rail project is also a BOT and for no reason the project has been delayed. However, considering the sufferings of the city-dwellers, the project should be inaugurated without delay.
E-mail: shafiqul0032@yahoo.com
Transport must be a contributor, not a burden, to our quality of life. The air we breathe cannot be the price we have to pay for the use of transport to work and back. But it is a matter of utter dismay that the city dwellers are facing nagging traffic congestion, breathing polluted air and being exposed to sound pollution everyday. But what measures the authorities are taking to get rid of the situation is a matter of serious thinking. Congestion in transportation in a mega-city like Dhaka is a topic of long discussion. The perspective of solving this problem can vary from person to person. However, the solution to this nagging problem cannot wait as the city is becoming more unmanageable every passing day.
One may choose monorail with the light metro that runs on a single beam for Dhaka. Though it may seem beautiful, the reality is that the monorail can carry fewer passengers with less speed than heavy metro (subway) system. There is also the system of BRT on a fixed lane. However, it has the disadvantage that it pollutes very much. On the other hand, it caters to only 4000-5000 passengers per hour. We cannot forget here that ours is a city of over 13 million people. Moreover, thousands of people are coming to the center from the country. If only 30 per cent of the city's total population use the transport, then how is BRT going to serve that huge number of passengers? One thing has to be kept in mind that the population of Dhaka is increasing by leaps and bounds.
There is occasional water-logging in the city during the rainy season. This may lead one to think that the heavy metro (subway) system for Dhaka may be unsuitable. But one needs to remember here that selection of mass transit system is not affected by occasional water-logging, rather it entirely depends on the population density of a particular city. There is hardly any reason for the subway tunnel to be submerged by flood or excessive rainfall, since during the designing phase of the station, high flood level is duly considered. There are two under-passes in Dhaka but this scribe has never seen any of those under-passes getting submerged in water. And there is underground parking up to three or four levels beneath the ground without any problem at all.
In 2007, a light metro in Japan failed due to earthquake but this has never happened in case of subway as the underground tunnel can withstand quake up to a magnitude of Richter scale 9.2.
Subway is subsidised in many cities but in the recent past many subways have touched the profit zone such as Tokyo and New York subways. The subway in Hong Kong is also profitable and the MTRC of Hong Kong has completed some BOT projects and all of those are profitable. They have even made the losing projects profitable. Eidan subway of Tokyo was once subsidised by Japanese government, but it has now become profitable after privatisation. It is not hard to understand why it is so, if one makes a comparison between Grameen Phone and T&T. Grameen has more than twenty million subscribers. But what is the situation of T&T in spite of its huge set-up? The same thing is true of TeleTalk.
The Ministry of Communications has sent the proposal of Contech Ltd., to the Planning Commission a number of times, seeking fund to conduct feasibility study for the metro rail. But Planning Commission has rejected it every time. But if metro rail is not feasible, then how did BR invite tender in 2002? Though there is no scope for spending government of Bangladesh (GOB) fund in a BOT project, still every year local money is drained out to the foreign country for consultancy purposes.
Cost and time for the construction of subway may vary from city to city depending on the traffic flow pattern, depth, method, etc. China has constructed a number of lines within the shortest possible time in the recent past. In Delhi, the construction was very quick and the Bangalore metro is also in good shape, which is an ongoing project. Cut and cover at a shallow depth keeping the provision for future expansion is always a cheap and easy process if the labour cost is cheap. But tunneling by TBM is always slow and expensive, where cut and cover is a must for the stations.
The private project had got worldwide popularity in the last few years. In Bangladesh, this practice has to be started very soon. Before that, the procedures have to be well understood. There has to be a proposal for PPP, BOT, BOOT, SOT etc. Feasibility is the headache of the investor. Financial matters come into consideration at the stages IV & V, Maximum facilities should be offered by the government to the private sector according to the BPSIG, etc.
The metro rail project is also a BOT and for no reason the project has been delayed. However, considering the sufferings of the city-dwellers, the project should be inaugurated without delay.
E-mail: shafiqul0032@yahoo.com