Significant change in city\\\'s transportation plan on cards

The Dhaka city's transportation plan is expected to see a significant change soon as the government has taken an initiative to revise the current Strategic Transport Plan (STP) incorporating the adjacent five districts, officials said Thursday.
Communications Ministry officials said the current STP was formulated considering the traffic volume and necessary infrastructure of the Dhaka metropolis only. The next one would incorporate five districts including Gazipur, Manikganj, Munshiganj, Narayanganj and Narsingdi.
"Since Dhaka city is very much integrated with the neighbouring district towns, we cannot ignore the movement of traffic with those districts. So, we have started to update the present STP in order to make the capital city an efficient transportation hub," said a senior communications ministry official.
The current 20- year (2004-2024) STP, prepared in 2005, considers only the future transport volume and its remedies of the Dhaka city without incorporating the movement of the passengers and goods to and from the adjacent towns.
Now the state-owned Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA) with the financial support of the Japan government would revise and update the STP for the Dhaka city, the ministry official said.
The government would invest Tk 194.10 million funds for updating the current STP for Dhaka, he told the FE.
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) would provide Tk 190.5 million funds, lions share of the Tk 194.10 million project cost.
"Presently transportation system for Dhaka city alone is not perfect without considering the traffic with other adjacent districts. Many people now come from the adjacent district towns to the capital city for work. So, this is the perfect time to add those district towns with the Dhaka's integrated transport plan," the communications ministry official said.
If the adjacent districts are taken into consideration with the Dhaka's future transportation system, the capital city will get relief from the huge population pressure, he added.
A DTCA official said they had selected a joint-venture consultant of ALMEC Corporation, Oriental Consultants Co. Ltd. and Katharia & Engineering International in May this year to update the STP for the Dhaka city. The JV consulting firm would revise and update the STP by September, 2015, he said.
Meanwhile, the DTCA and the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) have already selected some routes for constructing three metro rail transit (MRT) and four bus rapid transit (BRT) lines following the current STP to ease traffic snarls in the busy metropolis.
The JICA and the RHD conducted a feasibility study and recommended construction of seven routes in and around the city.
DTCA officials said primarily they would construct the 20.10-kilometre MRT-6 line from Uttara Phase-III to the Bangladesh Bank point at Motijheel via Farmgate. And the RHD will build the 20km BRT line from the Airport point to Gazipur.
Later, the DTCA will construct two other metro-rail routes: the 23 km long MRT-4 line from Uttara-Sayedabad via DIT and the 23km MRT-5 circular line from Gulshan via DIT in the city.
Of the three other BRT routes, the authority will build the 23km BRT-1 line from Purbachal-Sayedabad via DIT, the 14km BRT-2 line is on the Gabtoli-Dhanmondi-New Market-Sayedabad route and the 23km BRT-3 line on the Uttara-DIT-Sayedabad route.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB), the World Bank and the France-based agency AFD have committed to fund construction of the BRT line from the Airport to Gazipur.
The DTCA would construct the remaining five MRT and BRT lines with concessional loans from the foreign donors, a communications ministry official said.
The official said they are hopeful that the updated STP would suggest some new routes of integrating the capital city with the adjacent districts in the future transport plan.
If people can move to and from Dhaka city from the adjacent district towns, they would be able to reach their work place in the capital and return to their residences outside the city easily everyday, he added.