Challenges still remain on three main fronts

Munima Sultana | Published: June 28, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

Three major challenges still remain over construction of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line from Gazipur to Airport despite the progress made in preparing its detailed design.
Sources said the most troubling challenge for the Tk 20.45 billion project, meant for easing sufferings of commuters on the route, lay in finalising the site for its depot in Gazipur and construction of a multimodal hub at the airport point.
Another challenge facing the Roads and Highways Department (RHD), the implementing agency for the mass-transport project, was over how to accommodate at least 65 existing routes that will overlap the Gazipur-Dhaka line.
Project insiders said though the consultant for the BRT project, known as Dhaka BRT, completed an interim design based on the depot location on the land of Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL), a demand was now made to shift the depot further east of Gazipur city.
Sources said consultants for the Asian Development Bank-funded BRT project had initially suggested the depot site on the BTCL land.
An official said the RHD had also received five acres of land from the BTRC (Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission). But the local political leaders wanted the depot constructed on the eastern side of the Gazipur railway station.
They claimed that a technical college had long been planned on the BTCL land under the Gazipur Master Plan.
AKM Mozammel Haque, Member of Parliament from Gazipur-1 constituency and also Minister for Liberation War Affairs, officially raised the demand at a workshop organised by the RHD to present the interim report on the Dhaka BRT project at a city hotel Wednesday.
When asked, a senior project official said they were not aware of the demand until it was disclosed at the workshop. He thinks it will further delay the project and increase the project cost further, as a flyover would also be needed to be constructed to connect the line with the depot on the MP-proposed land.
Sources also said in the face of non-cooperation in setting up the multimodal hub at the airport point the RHD had involved the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to overcome it.
They said a meeting on June 4 with the PM's principal secretary in chair could not decide on who would construct the multimodal hub and under what arrangement.
The Dhaka BRT has been planned to construct the bus transit line from Gazipur to Airport by setting the multimodal hub on the land of Bangladesh Railway under a public-private partnership arrangement. However, a conflict arose over the authority to construct it and the funding arrangement.
Officials said the project also faced the challenge of accommodating at least 65 existing routes buses. The RHD will either divert the routes elsewhere or accommodate those in the BRT dedicated line.
However, according to consultants, the BRT line will be equipped with 141 high passenger-capacity articulated buses and have 22 stations with the step for alighting from buses and pavement at the same level.
During the RHD workshop held Wednesday, Prof Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, an expert on the 20-year Strategic Transport Plan (STP) for the greater Dhaka City, also raised the point on proper coordination to make the dedicated bus lane successful.
He noted that the BRT system had been popular in many countries where its planning and designs were well done. Though the BRT system was launched in over 175 countries in the world, many countries, including India, could not make popular the service due to lapses in planning.
"The BRT project has to be built with a lot of care so that commuters' demands at all stages are met efficiently," he told the workshop.
Apart from the challenges, the consultants also raised issues including capacity building of the staff and appointing a managing director for the BRT company.
The ADB and two other financiers are financing the Dhaka BRT which will also have a 15.5-km grade road, a 4.5-km elevated road, an eight-lane bridge at Tongi and seven flyovers to be completed by 2016.
Bangladesh Bridges Authority (BBA) will assist the RHD in constructing the elevated part and the eight-lane bridge while the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) will help build the depot in Gazipur.