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FEASIBILITY OF REHABILITATING EXISTING RAILWAY FOR CITY
COMMUTING IN DHAKA METROPOLITAN
Md.
Masud Karim
EngConsult
Limited, 21 Queen Street East, Suite 201, Brampton, Ontario, L6W 3P1, Canada.
and
Mohammed
Shafiqul Mannan
Nokia,
Finland.
Bangladesh
is a populous country and Dhaka, as the capital of Bangladesh, where population
has already crossed 10 million. With a rate of increase of population of about
7% per year, Dhaka Metropolitan Area is expected to become one of the largest
cities within the early next century. The existing mass transit can not fulfill
the current traffic loads. The contribution of Bangladesh Railways (BR) to
urban public transport is very small. The main inter City line entering the
city from the north carries a small share of commuter traffic. The line to
Narayanganj recently handed-over to private management shows a greater
efficiency in carrying huge back and forth commuter traffic. Rehabilitation and
improvement of north main Bangladesh Railway (BR) line and development of some
new routes of rail transit through the city center can supplement and
accommodate excess traffic and the growing traffic demand in the near future.
To
cope with the problems of increasing transportation demand, traffic congestion,
deteriorating environmental quality, and inadequate traffic safety measures
rehabilitation of existing Kamalapur Rail Station to Tongi line and expansion
from Mohakhali Rail Crossing to Sadarghat via Farmgate and City Center can be a
probable solution. Rail (especially light rail) has been successfully
introduced in some developing cities on the ground that it can offer a high
capacity service with an appealing modern image, less expensive than full
subway and monorail system, and environmentally friendly. This paper addresses
the pre-feasibility of rehabilitating the existing north BR line, presents the
potential of easing huge traffic congestion in the city, and provides the
preliminary estimates of investment costs with less foreign involvement and
more private/public investment.
Key words: Rail rehabilitation, light
rail transit, traffic pollution, traffic safety, landuse development, and
private/public investment.
Dhaka is the largest conurbation in Bangladesh, has been an
attraction to landless rural poor who see it as a source of income and services
they can not find their home villages (Hassan, 1997). The rate of migration
from rural areas to this city is very high. The Dhaka Metropolitan Development
Plan (DMDP) forecasted a population growth for the 25 years period from 1991 to
2016 is 100%. And migration alone contributed around 70% of overall growth. Dhaka as a
capital city has a major role to play in era of regional and sub-regional
cooperation, which are being contemplated recently. The existing transportation
system may become bottleneck for the development of the city. To maintain the
economic viability of this City and to keep its environment sustainable, an
efficient transportation system is imperative. Transportation activity amounts
to 11.5% of the Bangladesh Gross Domestic Products (BBS, 1995). On average,
Dhaka households spend about 10.8% of their expenditure in transportation use
(DUTP, 1996). On a large scale, it has been shown that non-car-owning
households in Dhaka spend considerably more on transport in relation to both
total income and disposable income compared to those car-owning households.
Furthermore, the much higher rate of population increase compared to the
developed cities, coupled with low level of private car ownership, make more
and more people rely on public transport continuously (Mannan and Karim 2001).
Public
transport services are provided by commuter rail, buses, minibuses, high
quality bus service (Premium Bus), taxis, auto-tempos, auto rickshaws, and
rickshaws. Only bus, minibus, and commuter rail are the cheapest mode available as
mass transit among the public transports (Mannan and Karim, 2001).
Traffic
on the Dhaka Urban highways is mainly buses and trucks representing 56% of all
movements with auto rickshaws (13%), rickshaws (11%) and car/jeep (10%). In the
city buses and trucks are representing very small proportion of movements, only
10.4%. Rickshaw representing 56.8%, auto rickshaw 24.4% and car/jeep 8.4% of
all movements (JBIC, 2000). Walk is
the popular mode of travel for the poor, followed by rickshaw in Dhaka. Mass
transit has less contribution in moving traffic in Dhaka due to the poor level
of service.
The existing transportation infrastructure in Dhaka could not bear the current traffic loads. The level of service and options of transport modes are not at all convenient for the passengers and either for the environment (Karim, 1998). Banning NMT would have a serious impact on the movement pattern of the City residents and alternatives will have to be found to meet the blocked demand. If this is to be replaced by the by far less efficient cars Dhaka's road network would immediately be jammed. If the shortfall is to be covered by buses then the number of buses would force immediate introduction of a network of bus only lanes and bus at the major intersections (DUTP, 1996). However, the existing infrastructure and social condition have not enough provision to introduce bus only lanes and bus prioritization (Dainichi and Others, 1998). In this perspective, one form of transportation supply with potentially high capacity is elevated/underground mass transit systems. This mass movement capacity continues to be important for a big city like Dhaka. This applies to all metropolitan areas of at least 1 million populations, but it is most true of the older part of Dhaka and densely populated zones like Mirpur, East and Western suburbs. There the agglomeration of human activities in a small area is so intense that circulation of private vehicle causes recurrent congestion, which no feasible expansion of the street system could eliminate. The main aim of this study is to make a feasibility study of a suitable mass transit based on empirical field data, discussion with experts, and literature review. The structure of this paper is therefore organized as follows. In section 2, information about present traffic system, their limitations and impacts is provided. Section 3 summarizes the base year demographics, section 4 provides information about future demand of public transport. Section 5 gives an overview of the rehabilitation of existing north south BR line and possible extension towards the city center, some engineering features and cost estimation are also given. And finally the conclusions are made with a proposal of further feasibility study for rehabilitating the existing line.
2.1 The
present traffic system
The transportation system of Dhaka is predominantly road based and non-motorized transportation (mainly rickshaw) has a substantial share. Dhaka Metropolitan has heterogeneous traffic flows, as of 2000 an estimated 271,183 automobiles are on road. Rickshaws (a special type of tri-cycle peddled by human) are the dominating mode of public transport. In Dhaka Metropolitan Area, as of 1999 about 14,505,000 trips are made by all modes. Excluding walk trips the share of public transport for these trips is almost 89.5% (5,505,000 trips). Of them, about 1,927,000 trips are made with rickshaw, 845,000 with auto-rickshaw, 3,752 with existing rails, 285,634 trips by water transport, and 693,163 with the buses. The number of passengers in public transport has been increasing continuously during the last 20 years. However, there is a clear difference in the share of public transport trips to the city according to the corridor in question. The shares of public transport trips are higher from the south than from the north. The main reason to this is the socioeconomic status of the inhabitants of the areas. The people in northern part of Dhaka have higher income and higher car ownership than the people in southern part of Dhaka.
From the experience of other megacities, road system alone can not satisfy the need for transportation of such a large city, like Dhaka. However, the road network of the Dhaka City is non-lane basis and all transport modes (motorized and non-motorized) use same lane. In Dhaka about 97% inhabitants are dependent on low cost public transport. Bus and minibus are the cheapest mode available as mass transit among the public transport. Excluding buses, taxi, auto-tempo, auto rickshaw (baby taxi), and rickshaws (NMT) are available and expensive small passenger transport modes.
Bus
is operated in Dhaka City both in private and public sectors. The private
sector is dominating and providing a monopoly service (95% of total bus
services) compared to public sector operation. Public services operated by
Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) is running out of profit. A total
of 113 Double Decker and 235 units of single decker buses are running in Dhaka
City carrying 503,964 passengers a day, substituting at least 4,500
auto-rickshaws and tempos. The number of total buses in private sector
operation has estimated as of 1999 in Dhaka about 11,999 (6063 minibus and 5936
bus). The present bus services provide inefficient, unproductive, and unsafe
level of services. Long waiting, delay on plying, overloading, discomfort, and
long walking distance from the residence/work place to bus stoppages are some
of the obvious problems that confront the users in their daily life. In peak hours they very often load and
unload in unspecified stops. It is a common practice in rush hours to deny
access to the old, women, and children passengers, because this group has a
tendency to avoid fighting during boarding and alighting.
2.2 Impact of present traffic system
Congestion causes increased costs for travelers and freight
movement, loss of time, and psychological strain. Congestion is what most
people find objectionable about traveling in cities. It is the most common
complaint. If there were no congestion, most people would be happy with their
transportation systems. Congestion has several generic causes. The first is urbanization--the
density of people and economic activities in urban areas. The second cause is
the problem of matching supply and demand of transportation infrastructure. The third and
most important reason of congestion in Dhaka City is the traffic management
schemes. There is no big city of the world with a population impact like Dhaka,
where non-motorized and motorized transports exist in the same road. In
addition, there is prevalence of roadside hawkers, illegal parking of vehicles,
lack of synchronized traffic signal systems, and widespread disrespect of
traffic rules and laws. Driver's education, consciousness, and behavior are
extremely poor.
Figure 1: Estimated
vehicle delay in different road intersections of Dhaka.
Even at very small
percentage of motorized vehicles (less than 5 motorized vehicles per 1000
people), the city dwellers are experiencing severe congestion everywhere in the
city in all the working hours. In many parts of Dhaka, rickshaws and other NMT
account for 50% or more of the overall traffic flow. Interaction between NMT
and MT leads congestion in every corner of the city. It is possible to minimize
congestion by banning NMT from main road networks. But banning NMT is not a
smart decision without offering alternative means of NMT for mobility. This is
because banning NMT would have a serious impact on the movement pattern of the
City residents and alternatives will have to be found to meet the blocked
demand. For minimizing congestion the existing system needs to be expanded in
terms of both fleet and road network and also improve maintenance facilities,
stops and terminals layout, quality of services and develop advanced form of
transit facilities such as rapid rail transit (Ahsan, 1990).
Traffic
has grown in Dhaka from several hundreds to hundreds of thousand motorized and
non-motorized vehicles, the road network remains virtually the same for the
last two decades. There have been cosmetic changes here and there, and
beautification of some roads, road islands and road dividers, but net increase
to road mileage has been very negligible. Therefore, when there is a pressure
on a major road due to some reason, there is hardly any alternative road to
take. This is the reason of sever congestion during peak hour. Delays due to
congestion in different intersections is considered to estimate the economic
value (the delay cost) of the delays. This cost can be aggregated to the
economic viability of the modal shift of transport. One of the World Bank
funded project (DUTP, 1996) in Dhaka indicated that in 24 most congested
intersections the annual delay cost totaled BDT 600,947,000 (US$ 14,308262).
The estimated delay in 24 most congested intersections in Dhaka is presented in
Figure 1.
2.2.2 Mobility
Mobility is one of the most basic of human instincts and transportation assumes a large role in the lives of road users. The second aspect of transportation problem is usually labeled mobility, or accessibility. Our society requires a great deal of travel, but people do not have equal abilities to travel or equal access to the transportation system. Most of the public transport of Dhaka could not maintain a minimum level of service to meet the demands of the citizens. 60% of all movements are pedestrian movements. Rickshaws the slowest mode of transport are the means of low, moderate and higher income groups at 40%, 50%, and 57.5% respectively and fall back to 7% for the highest income group. Table 2 provides a comparison of modal split based on trip purpose and income groups.
Table 1:
Modal Split based on trip purpose and income in Dhaka Metropolitan.
|
Purpose of trips |
Income Group (BDT) |
Modal Split (%) |
|||
|
Walk |
Rickshaw |
Public Transport |
Private Mechanized |
||
|
Home based trips to and from work |
< 2000 |
80.6 |
10 |
9.4 |
0 |
|
2000~9999 |
63.7 |
16 |
17.1 |
3.2 |
|
|
10000~29999 |
43.2 |
32.5 |
12.8 |
20.5 |
|
|
Home based trips other than work |
< 2000 |
88 |
5.7 |
5.6 |
0.7 |
|
2000~9999 |
72.7 |
16.7 |
8.2 |
2.4 |
|
|
10000~29999 |
37 |
38.4 |
6.6 |
18 |
|
|
Non home based trips |
21.9 |
40.5 |
11.4 |
26.2 |
|
|
Total |
63 |
20 |
10.7 |
6.3 |
|
The search for a sustainable transport policy has to start from an
understanding of the present situation and how it has come about. The purposes for
which people travel are analyzed in Table 1. Home based trips account for more
than 90% of all person trips made within Dhaka Metropolitan area (DITS, 1994).
By far the single largest group of trips is Home Based trips destination other
than work in income groups (BDT 2000 ~ 9999), which account for 30% of all
trips.
Air
quality in Dhaka has increased substantially, causing serious damage to lives
and property. Motor vehicles are the major sources of carbon monoxide and
ozone. Transit vehicles cause less air pollution per passenger, and a large
shift of motorists to transit would improve the air quality.
In
urban areas of Bangladesh, where more than 20% (more than 50% in Dhaka) of the
population live, levels of motor vehicle related pollutants frequently exceed
internationally agreed air quality guidelines. Recent study found that
pollutant concentrations in microenvironments (vehicle inside, footpath,
corridors etc.) are high in compare to that in local monitoring stations (Karim
et. al., 1996; Karim and Matsui, 1998). Modal contribution of CO, HC, PM, and
NOx in greater Dhaka is presented in Figure 2.
Two-stroke engine vehicles that are poorly maintained emit high CO emission due to incomplete fuel combustion. Two-stroke engine vehicles and car/jeep are the major contributors to CO emission emitting 32,178 t/yr (37.2%) and 26,465 t/yr (30.7%), respectively. Motorcycle emits 20,746 t/yr (24.0%). It is estimated that auto-rickshaw is the major contributor of HC emission (23,019 t/yr) having 56.0% share, followed by motorcycle (10,574 t/yr) having 25.7% share. Bus has little contribution of HC emission. Hydrocarbon emissions are partially due to unburned fuel components, which can be reduced through improved engine efficiency. In addition to motor vehicle exhaust emissions, major anthropogenic sources of HC include evaporative emissions from gasoline. Evaporative emissions are not included in the estimation, however it has significant contributions, as fuels pilfered from vehicles are sold to the auto-rickshaw drivers. NOx include predominantly nitric oxide (NO) and NO2. The calculation of NOx indicates that truck-tanker (diesel operated) and bus and minibus have the significant contribution of NOx (5,209 t/yr, share of 45.3% and 3,019 t/yr with a share of 26.3%), followed by light-duty vehicles (Car and Jeep) (2,262 t/yr with a share of 19.7%). Three wheelers are the least contributing modes of NOx in Dhaka City.
Figure 2: Modal contribution of traffic
emission in Dhaka metropolitan.
The
significant pollutants from diesel-fueled vehicles are PM (including smoke) and
NOx exhaust. Because diesel engines operate at high air fuel ratios
(30:1), they tend to have low HC and CO emissions. They have considerably
higher PM emissions than gasoline-fueled vehicles. The estimated PM emissions
from different modes indicate that around 4,708 t/yr (46.1%) emission
contribution is from bus/minibus, followed by truck and tanker 4,151 t/yr
(40.7%). The modal contribution of SO2 in Dhaka is coming from
mainly high sulfur content in the diesel fuel. It is observed that truck and
tanker powered by diesel fuel contributes 1,776 t/yr (49.1%) and buses emit the
second largest share 1,629 t/yr (45.1%) of SO2 emission in Dhaka
City. The major sources of air pollution in Dhaka city are therefore, the
two-stroke engine vehicles that emit high CO and HC, and diesel operated
vehicles (Bus, Truck) that emit high NOx and PM.
In
an economic evaluation of air pollution in Bangladesh, the World Bank estimated
that nearly 15,000 deaths would be avoided annually (10,800 in Dhaka, 2,060 in
Chittagong, 1,020 in Khulna, and 975 in Bogra), if the level of air pollution
in Bangladesh four largest cities reduced to the WHO annual average standard.
In addition, there would be an estimated 6.5 million fewer cases of sickness
requiring medical treatment; and 850 million fewer restricted activity days,
respiratory symptom days, cases of lower respiratory illnesses in children, and
other minor sicknesses. The economic cost of this sickness and death is
estimated to be $200-800 million per year, or 0.7% - 3.0% of GDP per year
(Brandon, 1997).
2.2.4 Energy consumption
Energy
consumption per passenger kilometer varied a lot in different transport modes.
Public transports consumed less energy compared to private transports. Transit
has the potential to reduce oil consumption. Whether it will ever make a
sizable impact on energy use needs to be ascertain. The current approach in
technical grounds is to make automobiles more fuel-efficient. Most of the
developed countries are successful in this ground, however, it is a matter of
advance research to comment on Dhaka's performance. Most of the automobiles in
Dhaka are old and lacking proper maintenance. In terms of energy consumption,
some studies reported that mass rail transit is the most efficient powered
urban transport mode in terms of energy used per passenger kilometer. Table 2 provides energy use and emission
from different conventional modes of transport. Motor cars typically consume
between 1.5~3.02 MJ/p/km, buses between 0.52~0.87, bus rail 0.71, Rapid rail
0.43, and light rail 0.37 (Black, 1995).
Table 2: Energy use and
emission from different modes.
|
Modes |
Energy use |
Energy consumption (MJ/p/km) |
CO emission (g/km/veh) |
|
Car |
Gasoline |
1.5~3.02 |
14.49 |
|
Auto-rickshaw |
Gasoline |
0.04* |
39.4 |
|
Motor Cycle |
Gasoline |
0.03* |
21.24 |
|
Bus |
Diesel |
0.52~0.87 |
1.641 |
|
Bus Rail |
Diesel |
0.71* |
1.641 |
|
Light Rail |
Residual oil |
0.37 |
0.01 |
|
Rapid Rail |
Residual oil |
0.43 |
0.01 |
*
Units in l /veh/km.
Traffic safety in Dhaka is very poor and deteriorating continuously. Pedestrians, cyclists, and other passengers of NMV are particularly at risk and constitute the largest proportion of killed or injured. In brief, there is a general lack of infrastructure for pedestrians and other NMV in the urban transport system. There are several causes of accident occurrence in Dhaka. The city road networks were designed for a smaller population, and do not have the capacity to handle the current increasing number of travelers and vehicles. This leads overloading and over speeding thus increases accident risk. To negotiate with high travelers' flow most of the bus drivers often compelled to overload their vehicles. This leads to boarding and alighting passengers at any point of the road networks. These discriminate stopping pattern increase accident risk. The main reason of higher accident risk in Dhaka is careless transport planning. An effective institutional framework to consistently plan and manage the urban transport system is still lacking.
Although
the data on road accidents in Greater Dhaka is poor there is nevertheless
strong evidence of an increasing rate of accidents as the city becomes more
motorized. This contrasts with developed countries where accident rates have
fallen over the past decade as accident countermeasures have started to take
effect. Based on available statistics, the accident rate in Bangladesh has been
estimated as 60 deaths per 10000 motorized vehicles; this is 33% higher than
India and 8 times greater than Thailand (DITS, 1994). In Dhaka fatality rate
per 100,000 vehicles have been increasing
all the times However, it has been estimated that fatalities in road
traffic accident will be double in the year 2001 using 1994 as the base year,
if current traffic system exist in Dhaka (Mannan & Karim 1999).
The
Dhaka metropolitan has been divided into 18 Strategic Planning Zones in
conjunction with DITS traffic zones. SPZs 1-7 comprised of the 1981 Dhaka City
Corporation area, SPZs 1-14 comprised of the 1981 Statistical Metropolitan
Area, and SPZs 1-18 made up the 1991 Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan Area.
Dhaka Metropolitan Development Planning (DMDP) project made detail analysis of
the database of 1991 census data. The population projections were prepared
based on the overall population growth of Bangladesh, the share that probably
could be retained by the rural areas and the part of the urban growth that
would be taken up by the Dhaka Metropolitan area. The result of these activities
being that the 1991 population of Dhaka 7,346,000 is projected to grow to
12,619,000 in the year 2006 and 15,569,000 within the year 2016.
Table
3: DMDP Central
Population forecast.
|
Strategic
Planning Zones |
Forecasted population in thousands |
|||||
|
1991 |
1996 |
2001 |
2006 |
2011 |
2016 |
|
|
1
- 7 |
3844 |
4684 |
5747 |
6308 |
7008 |
7498 |
|
8
- 14 |
2044 |
2744 |
3464 |
4114 |
4764 |
5400 |
|
15
- 18 |
1005 |
1206 |
1408 |
1609 |
1789 |
1966 |
|
19 |
453 |
498 |
543 |
588 |
647 |
705 |
|
Total |
7334 |
9132 |
11162 |
12619 |
14208 |
15569 |
The
populations of the SPZs are adjusted census figures for 1991, which take into
account the estimated census undercount. The forecast anticipates a doubling of
population over 25 years and an average growth rate of 3.1%. However, even with
continuing large immigration, overall growth rates show a steady decline of the
overall growth for the 25 years, 70% is due to directly or indirectly to
migration. The overall population projection in SPZs is shown in Table 3. In comparing with the
overall population projection, an assessment can be made to the growth
potential of each SPZs. The inner core with its already high densities can be
made flatten in providing good quality transit system. The eastern Fringe is
already the target for a number of private developers, who are raising the land
through land fill and are planning large scale estates. Hence new improvements
and addition of transit facilities will build-up further growth of
urbanization.
4. FUTURE TRAFFIC DEMAND
In
conventional four-step travel demand modeling process, the number of trips made
by households is modeled in terms of household size, income, and other socio-demographic variables; any
effect of location, land use, or transportation service level is discounted
(Ewing et. al. 1996). The conventional modeling process also discounts any
effect of location, land use, and transportation service level on the choice
between vehicle and walk/bicycle modes. Generally if travel-activity demand is
elastic, the increase in trip rates with improved accessibility will be large.
On the other hand if the demand is inelastic, the increase will be small. Even
if travel demand is inelastic, vehicle
trip rates could vary with location, land use, and transportation service level
(Ewing et. al.,1996).
Urban
travel demand forecasting process predicts the future demand of transportation
in hypothetical conditions (build a freeway or build a rail line). It may be
applied to present conditions in order to check the validity of the models or
to calibrate them (to estimate the numerical values of essential parameters).
In this study the forecasting process is based on division of the region under
study into traffic zones. Before
travel forecasting, the land use, population, and economic activity in each
zone are estimated for the forecast year. DITS established 142 traffic zones by
dividing Dhaka Metropolitan. An updating has been made in 1995, by DMDP
resulting in adjustment of the zones to conform to ward, mouza, and pourashava
boundaries. These traffic zones are used for traffic demand forecasting. Figure
3 represents
public transport demand in Dhaka Metropolitan.
Figure 3: Total Estimated
Public Transport Demand in Dhaka Metropolitan.
The number of person-trip ends in each zone is
estimated based on zonal population, household income characteristics,
employment type, and calibration trip generation relationships. Table 4
provides generated trips along major corridors in Dhaka. Based on the
information in table 4 it is envisaged that Mirpur Road, Rokeya Sarani, Dhaka
Mymenshing Road via Kazi Nazrul Islam Road are few of the high travel demand
roads for public transport.
Table 4: Trips Originated in Major Corridors
in 1996.
|
Corridor |
Bus |
Auto-tempo |
Rickshaw |
|
Satmasjid Road |
33,000 |
27,000 |
48,000 |
|
Mirpur Road |
92,000 |
900 (?) |
192,000 |
|
Rokeya Sarani |
103,000 |
145,00(?) |
96,000 |
|
Kazi Nazrul Islam Rd. |
46,000 |
43,500 |
38,000 |
|
Dhaka-Mymenshing Rd |
169,000 |
200 |
74,000 |
|
Progati Sarani |
72,000 |
12,000 |
96,000 |
|
New & Old Circular Rd |
169,000 |
200 |
74,000 |
|
(a) |
(b) |
Figure 4: Trip distribution
matrix. (a) Private Transport; (b)
Public Transport.
The number of trips starting in each zone and
ending in every other zone is calculated. The result is a table of zone-to-zone
trips called zonal interchanges.
This step requires the largest volume of computations. Two categories of
mathematical models are used: Growth factor
models start with a table of zonal interchanges for a base year and
factor it up to match forecast totals. Synthetic
models do not require an existing table; they estimate the
interchanges based on travel time and cost. The gravity model is the most
popular of the synthetic models, but some planners prefer the opportunity
model. Figures 4a and 4b present the trip distribution matrix of private and public transport in
Dhaka.
5. Rehabilitation of Existing
North-South Corridor
The traffic analysis and forecast along the Kazi
Nazrul Islam Avenue towards Mymenshing Road indicate that this is a heavy
traffic demand corridor. In addition, along this corridor particularly high
income group of people live and generate private traffic, which are responsible
for traffic congestion on these roads. The existing Dhaka-Tongi regional line
has all infrastructures from Zia International Airport to Mohakhali Rail
Crossing. Slight modifications on the existing line and new development from
Mohakhali Rail Crossing to Sadarghat via Farmgate and Motijheel will
tremendously increase commuter traffic and ease traffic congestion.
It is quite difficult to imagine that basic
transport services can be provided for a metropolitan with more than 10 million
people without reliable mass transit system. Changes in transport technology,
have over time, exerted a strong influence upon the shapes and forms of the
urban areas. It is, at the same time, true that although transport demand
requires the development of rail mass transit system, financial restraints
normally rejects the option and sometimes economic reason asks for better
alternative solutions. Dhaka Urban Transport Project (DUTP) funded by
International Development Association credits is designing a long-term
Strategic Transport Plan
(STP) for greater Dhaka region and Technical
Assistance & Training inputs to Project agencies. This project has two
major objectives: (i) to improve urban transport services in an economically,
environmentally, sustainable manner, and (ii) strengthen the institutional and
policy framework and address long-term transport planning issues in Greater
Dhaka Metropolitan Area. In addition, planning of private finance
monorail/elevated rail transit is also underway without any feasibility. Since,
development of new rail transit requires heavy investment which mean either
government must be responsible for subsidizing the transit system or transit
fare for per kilometer travel must be higher enough to compensate the
investment cost by the private entrepreneurs. A city like Dhaka, where GNP per
capita is only US$2500 with transport cost 10.8% of their household
expenditure. It will not be affordable for the city commuter to have access on
highly expensive transit system. Therefore, transit planning in Dhaka must be
in consideration with less investment and public/private finance.
To this end, our recommendation is to perform a
feasibility of rehabilitating the existing rail with slight modifications. The
authors performed a pre-feasibility study by their own without any financial
assistance. A proposed plan, route map, estimated cost and station details are
given in Figure 5. The cost-benefit analysis needs to be done. It is estimated
that the total length of the commuter rail from Uttara to Sadarghat is 20.21
km, length in elevated structure in the downtown area is 10.76 km, line at
grade (new) is 2.13km and line at grade (existing) is 7.32km. Total number of
stations required is 26, there are 3 existing stations which need to be renovated,
number of stations at elevated structure is 14 and at grade is 9. Total number
of terminals required for this rail project is 2, number of electrical
substation is 1 and number of rolling stocks required to carry the expected
traffic is 88. It is estimated that cost for civil works is US$119.22 million
and cost for electromechanical work including the locomotives is US$129.13
million. This is a preliminary estimation and needs detailed engineering and
financial feasibility of rehabilitating the existing rail for city commuting.
6. Conclusion
This
paper has addressed a preliminary investigation report of the authors to
improve the current traffic congestion of Dhaka. It is envisaged that in order
to complete a feasibility study of this kind intergovernmental cooperation is
highly recommended. The existing rail is the property of Bangladesh Railway,
which is under Ministry of Communication’s jurisdiction. On the other hand the
rest of the proposed route lies on Dhaka City Corporation’s property. In order
to ease traffic congestion and successful commencement of this project,
coordination among the organization is required. Though Greater Dhaka Transport
Planning Coordination Board (GDTPCB) has been established for smooth transition
of these kind of projects, it is learnt that GDTPCB is not functioning
properly. To this end, our recommendation is to arrange a link between the
monorail/elevated mass transit project that the Ministry of Communication,
under Railway Department is designing with that of a feasibility study of
rehabilitating the existing rail for city commuting. This feasibility study
would be the background study of the mass transit project, which will support
the detail engineering and financial feasibility of different mass transit
options. A feasibility study on various transit options and rehabilitation of
existing rail will establish proper
documentation so that more investors will eager to participate transit projects
on private finance basis.
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