Transport plan for Dhaka city should be meant for caring problems of the common man
Ziaur Rahman | Monday, 2 June 2008
THE number of private cars is increasing in Dhaka city, day by day. The fact that the private cars have been enjoying a priority in transport planning has 'encouraged' this growth. But, more private cars mean more pollution, both noise and air. Not only does a car-dependent transport system hurt the environment, it also uses up a lot of fuel, making our economy heavily fuel dependent. Transport planning that focuses unduly on private cars benefit only a tiny portion of the population while making it harder for the majority to go around. If the current transport plan is implemented, the needs for about 80 per cent of the population will be neglected and their interests will largely ignored under the current transport plan.
One would need to develop facilities for pedestrians, fuel-free transports, and public transport infrastructures to serve the needs of the majority of the city's population. For this we need to combine city planning with transport planning. Neighbourhoods should contain everything needed in our daily life such as facilities for schools, jobs, shops, hospitals and entertainment. This would help reduce the number of long trips between neighbourhoods and lessen the volume of traffic on the roads. The short trips that would be needed within the neighbourhoods through walking and by cycle-rickshaw riding should then suffice for meeting the requirements of the most of the city's population. If the infrastructure is improved, it would increase speed and safety. For long distance travel-outs, public transport facilities must be developed. It is very necessary to control the number of private cars in order to create a better transport system as well as a more liveable city.
Hence the Strategic Transport Plan (STP) for Dhaka must take the needs of the pedestrians and the requirements for fuel-free transport, inclusive neighbourhoods and public transports into consideration, in order to ensure proper and equitable transportation system for all.
The current transport plan encompassing the next 20 years -- that is about to be approved -- needs to be revised taking some of the above-mentioned problems into consideration. The proposed STP for Dhaka, if implemented, would only increase travel time and transport costs, pollution and fuel dependency as well as infrastructure and maintenance costs.
The STP proposes eleven options to solve the current and future transport problems in Dhaka. The sixth option has been chosen. This option relates to construction of a metro rail system, a by-pass and a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). The question remains unanswered why the option ranking sixth has been chosen, while the first five have been rejected. If one is not to follow the outcome of a detailed evaluation and is rather to introduce new terms on which the decision was supposedly made, then what is the point of a having detailed evaluation in the first place?
Further questions arise. A decision had previously been made to approve a Taka 60 billion (6,000 crore) Metro rail project. Then again, a second decision has reportedly taken for approval of a Taka 230 billion (23,000 crore) Metro rail project. Why are the two projects? And why such large expenditures to be made for Metro when only relatively few passengers, as it is anticipated, will use it? While public transit is undoubtedly important, a surface system would cost much less per kilometer, allowing for both lower costs and a far more extensive system. Further, if pedestrians are, as the STP claims, to be given priority, why is there almost no expenditure and no plans for improving the situation for pedestrians without whom, in any case, a Metro rail cannot function, as people must be able to reach the Metro stops in the first place?
Research shows that if we invest more in roads, all the problems associated with them -- pollution, noise, fuel dependency, and traffic congestion -- will be better addressed. Under the option number 6, three elevated road-ways are to be built at a cost of US $614 million, reflecting an increased expenditure of 64 per cent over those under option one of the STP. We have to spend then 64 per cent more and will get only more problems with traffic congestion and the environment. All the eleven STP options claim to put pedestrians' interest first but the allocation is 0.24 per cent of the proposed aggregate expenditure under it (STP) for expanding the facilities for the pedestrians. This is a tiny amount of money for a mode of transport that is supposedly to get special consideration. The STP also claims that a waterway would be an environmentally friendly way to transport goods around Dhaka, but the proposed budgetary expenditure is only 1.11 per cent of the aggregate demand for building such a waterway. Similarly, 34 per cent of trips in Dhaka are made by fuel-free transport but the proposed allocation is a meagre percentage 0.44 of the total outlay for building up this mode of transportation.
The STP upholds the interest of the pedestrians and recommends waterways and fuel-free transport as great modes of transportation, yet the proposed resource allocation for them are at negligible amounts of the proposed budget. None would deny here the importance of such modes of transportation. But sadly it is not there.
The Bangladesh Railway should play a major role in the transport sector of Dhaka. Its ability to move a large number of people cheaply with greater fuel efficiency is a major plus of any proper transport plan. The STP's proposed sixth option suggests moving the main railway station at Kamalapur to the outskirts of Dhaka city. But this, if implemented, would only increase the traffic problems in Dhaka City, because instead of taking the train all the way to the heart of the city, the many railway passengers coming to Dhaka from other cities would have to take road transport from the outskirts into the heart of the city. The dependence on road transportation in the process thereof will increase the pollution in Dhaka city as well as the travel costs of the passengers.
A recent report of the Dhaka Urban Transport Project (DUTP) showed that a ban of plying of rickshaws on the Mirpur Road decreased public transport movement along the road by 26 per cent. Yet it is claimed by the concerned circles that the ban was imposed in order to increase the mobility of public transports. After the implementation of the DUTP, the economy of the Mirpur Road corridor lost Taka 700 million per year due to time wasted by sitting idly during the traffic-jam. This figure does not include the money spent on wasted fuel or the environmental costs of burning so much fuel, which would add another Taka 1.5 billion.
Before the STP proposal gets approval, we would request the government to take steps to implement measures concerning demand management and mixed-use neighbourhoods. Also we urge them for not putting any disproportionate focus under the transport planning on cars. Rather, the common people's interests should come first. In Dhaka city, more facilities should be developed for the pedestrians, rickshaws, bi-cycles and public transport infrastructure. Furthermore, facilities should also be created outside Dhaka to alleviate the burden placed on the capital city's transportation system on the grounds of the needs of the country's population to travel to Dhaka for availing themselves of the facilities for health care, education etc. that are now available in the capital city.
The writer is an engineer, now residing in Bogot
One would need to develop facilities for pedestrians, fuel-free transports, and public transport infrastructures to serve the needs of the majority of the city's population. For this we need to combine city planning with transport planning. Neighbourhoods should contain everything needed in our daily life such as facilities for schools, jobs, shops, hospitals and entertainment. This would help reduce the number of long trips between neighbourhoods and lessen the volume of traffic on the roads. The short trips that would be needed within the neighbourhoods through walking and by cycle-rickshaw riding should then suffice for meeting the requirements of the most of the city's population. If the infrastructure is improved, it would increase speed and safety. For long distance travel-outs, public transport facilities must be developed. It is very necessary to control the number of private cars in order to create a better transport system as well as a more liveable city.
Hence the Strategic Transport Plan (STP) for Dhaka must take the needs of the pedestrians and the requirements for fuel-free transport, inclusive neighbourhoods and public transports into consideration, in order to ensure proper and equitable transportation system for all.
The current transport plan encompassing the next 20 years -- that is about to be approved -- needs to be revised taking some of the above-mentioned problems into consideration. The proposed STP for Dhaka, if implemented, would only increase travel time and transport costs, pollution and fuel dependency as well as infrastructure and maintenance costs.
The STP proposes eleven options to solve the current and future transport problems in Dhaka. The sixth option has been chosen. This option relates to construction of a metro rail system, a by-pass and a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). The question remains unanswered why the option ranking sixth has been chosen, while the first five have been rejected. If one is not to follow the outcome of a detailed evaluation and is rather to introduce new terms on which the decision was supposedly made, then what is the point of a having detailed evaluation in the first place?
Further questions arise. A decision had previously been made to approve a Taka 60 billion (6,000 crore) Metro rail project. Then again, a second decision has reportedly taken for approval of a Taka 230 billion (23,000 crore) Metro rail project. Why are the two projects? And why such large expenditures to be made for Metro when only relatively few passengers, as it is anticipated, will use it? While public transit is undoubtedly important, a surface system would cost much less per kilometer, allowing for both lower costs and a far more extensive system. Further, if pedestrians are, as the STP claims, to be given priority, why is there almost no expenditure and no plans for improving the situation for pedestrians without whom, in any case, a Metro rail cannot function, as people must be able to reach the Metro stops in the first place?
Research shows that if we invest more in roads, all the problems associated with them -- pollution, noise, fuel dependency, and traffic congestion -- will be better addressed. Under the option number 6, three elevated road-ways are to be built at a cost of US $614 million, reflecting an increased expenditure of 64 per cent over those under option one of the STP. We have to spend then 64 per cent more and will get only more problems with traffic congestion and the environment. All the eleven STP options claim to put pedestrians' interest first but the allocation is 0.24 per cent of the proposed aggregate expenditure under it (STP) for expanding the facilities for the pedestrians. This is a tiny amount of money for a mode of transport that is supposedly to get special consideration. The STP also claims that a waterway would be an environmentally friendly way to transport goods around Dhaka, but the proposed budgetary expenditure is only 1.11 per cent of the aggregate demand for building such a waterway. Similarly, 34 per cent of trips in Dhaka are made by fuel-free transport but the proposed allocation is a meagre percentage 0.44 of the total outlay for building up this mode of transportation.
The STP upholds the interest of the pedestrians and recommends waterways and fuel-free transport as great modes of transportation, yet the proposed resource allocation for them are at negligible amounts of the proposed budget. None would deny here the importance of such modes of transportation. But sadly it is not there.
The Bangladesh Railway should play a major role in the transport sector of Dhaka. Its ability to move a large number of people cheaply with greater fuel efficiency is a major plus of any proper transport plan. The STP's proposed sixth option suggests moving the main railway station at Kamalapur to the outskirts of Dhaka city. But this, if implemented, would only increase the traffic problems in Dhaka City, because instead of taking the train all the way to the heart of the city, the many railway passengers coming to Dhaka from other cities would have to take road transport from the outskirts into the heart of the city. The dependence on road transportation in the process thereof will increase the pollution in Dhaka city as well as the travel costs of the passengers.
A recent report of the Dhaka Urban Transport Project (DUTP) showed that a ban of plying of rickshaws on the Mirpur Road decreased public transport movement along the road by 26 per cent. Yet it is claimed by the concerned circles that the ban was imposed in order to increase the mobility of public transports. After the implementation of the DUTP, the economy of the Mirpur Road corridor lost Taka 700 million per year due to time wasted by sitting idly during the traffic-jam. This figure does not include the money spent on wasted fuel or the environmental costs of burning so much fuel, which would add another Taka 1.5 billion.
Before the STP proposal gets approval, we would request the government to take steps to implement measures concerning demand management and mixed-use neighbourhoods. Also we urge them for not putting any disproportionate focus under the transport planning on cars. Rather, the common people's interests should come first. In Dhaka city, more facilities should be developed for the pedestrians, rickshaws, bi-cycles and public transport infrastructure. Furthermore, facilities should also be created outside Dhaka to alleviate the burden placed on the capital city's transportation system on the grounds of the needs of the country's population to travel to Dhaka for availing themselves of the facilities for health care, education etc. that are now available in the capital city.
The writer is an engineer, now residing in Bogot