Transport Planning of Dhaka City: Some Contemporary Observations

Adil Mohammed Khan; Assistant Professor; Department of Urban and Regional

Planning; Jahangirnagar University; E-mail: adilmdkhan@yahoo.com

Dr. Md Akter Mahmud; Professor; Department of Urban and Regional Planning;

Jahangirnagar University; E-mail: aktermahmud@yahoo.com

Abstract

Traffic problem of Dhaka City is one of the major problems of the city that the city

dwellers are facing in their everyday life. Despite all the planning programs and projects,

designed by the successive governments, the situation is getting worse day by day.

Hence, some underlying questions related to traffic and transport system of the Dhaka

city are quite important here. Whether transport planning and management were given

proper attention in the past years? What were the past planning efforts regarding

transport and traffic in Dhaka city? Why these efforts have proved to be unsuccessful for

better transport management of Dhaka city and what are the shortcomings of those

plans? However, Strategic transport plan (STP) for Dhaka city has been approved in

2005 for an period of twenty years up to 2025. STP has proposed for installation of Bus

Rapid Transit (BRT), Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) as a solution of transport problems of

Dhaka City among ten alternative transportation strategies. This paper is an attempt to

evaluate the existing plans and programs designed for efficient transport system of

Dhaka city, to examine the root causes of failures of the previous and current programs

to have any significant impact on the present situation. Some recommendations have

been given according to the findings for efficient transport system of Dhaka city.

Introduction

The Dhaka city’s urban transport system is unique among cities of comparable size in

the world, being predominantly road-based with a substantial share for non-motorized

transport, notably cycle rickshaws. Buses and minibuses, the cheapest and only public

transport system, have not been able to increase their share and cater to the demand

because of service deficiencies. Long waiting and boarding times, overloading, lack of

easy transfer, and long walking distance from the residence or workplace to bus stops

are some of the problems that users face daily (ADB, 2011).

The existing urban transport system is a major bottleneck for the development of the city.

Anarchic urbanization caused by poor transportation and land-use planning has

resulted in decreased accessibility, level of service, safety, comfort, and operational

efficiency, causing increased costs, loss of time, air pollution, and psychological strain,

and posing a serious risk to the economic viability of the city and the sustainability of its

environment (Greater Dhaka Sustainable Urban Transport Project, 2010). The

uniqueness of transport problem of Dhaka City has posed some critical questions

regarding the tentative solutions of its transport crisis that this city is facing

tremendously. This paper focuses on those fundamental questions regarding the

transport planning of the Dhaka city.

Data from secondary sources have been collected for this paper and various transport

plans and policies have been reviewed for evaluating the transport planning of Dhaka

city. Strategic transport plan (STP) for Dhaka city has been approved in 2005 for a period

of twenty years up to 2025. STP has proposed for installation of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT),

Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) as a solution of transport problems of Dhaka City among ten

alternative transportation strategies. This paper evaluates alternative strategies of BRT

and MRT, proposed in STP in the light of planning goals and objectives.

Characteristics of Transport System of Dhaka

Travel share in Dhaka

STP (2005) has found in its household survey that, 76% travel shares are of ‚short-

distance‛ (less than 3 km). About 34% of total travel share are made on rickshaw and

48% of total travel share either by foot or non-motorized vehicle. Large portion of the

travelers are dependent on either foot or non-motorized vehicle for their principal mode

of their trips.

The primary mode of transport is particularly interesting, with about one third of

population (34%) use rickshaws, almost half (44%) using buses. About 48% people walk

or avail rickshaw and only 8% people use motorized non-transit type modes. Also of

interest is the proportion of walk trips reported from the household interview survey at

14%.

Table 1: Primary Travel Mode for All Trips

Primary Mode Percentage

Walk 14%

Rickshaw 34%

Transit 44%

Motorized (Non-Transit) 8%

Total 100%

Source: STP, 2005

Household survey of STP (2005) reveals that as per the definition of STP 45% household

are of low income group and 51% households are of medium income group in the city.

And rest only 4% households are within the high income. Interestingly, 97% people of

low and medium income people are dependent of public service transit system and only

rest 3% people of higher income group uses transit vehicles (buses).

Table 2: Income of household and their proportion in each travel mode

Income Level (Tk/Month) % of total

people of

Dhaka city

Walk Rickshaw Transit Non-

Transit

Low < 12,500 45% 56% 36% 39% 20%

Medium > 12,500-

55,000

51% 28% 61% 58% 68%

High >55,000 4% 16% 3% 3% 12%

100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Source: STP, 2005. Note: ‚Non-Transit‛ includes car, van, pickup, auto-rickshaw, taxi,

motorcycle

Some of the major findings from the Survey’s Conducted for STP are as follows:

Buses comprise a small proportion of vehicle numbers (11½%) but carry about

77% of people;

Rickshaws comprise 28% of all vehicles moving in the city;

Autos are a low proportion of vehicles comprising less than 10% of travel;

The average household income was Tk15,000 ($253) per month with 3½% of

households in the ‚high‛ income level exceeding Tk55,000 ($920) per month;

The average number of persons per households was 4.12;

On average, each household undertook 8½ trips per day by all modes; and

The average trip length was found to be 5.37 kilometres.

Road Network of Dhaka

In Dhaka Metropolitan Area (DMA) has approximately 3,000 km road network in which

only 200 km primary road, 110 km secondary, 152 km feeder and 2,640 km narrow.

Interestingly, public transports ply only on 2.5% of the total road network. Only 400 km

road has footpath although footpath is a compulsory part of road within the urban area

as it reduce the pressure on road. Moreover, around 40% of this footpath is occupied

with the street vendor, garbage bins or construction materials and shop keepers.

Table 3: Category of Roads in Dhaka City

Road Type in DMA Length (Km) Percentage

Primary road 200 6.66%

Secondary road 110 3.66%

Feeder road 152 5.06%

Narrow road 2540 84.62%

Total 3002 100.00

Trend of Vehicle Registration in Dhaka

STP stressed in its report on the public transits and discouraged ‚auto-oriented‛- private

cars. In reality, due attention has not given to reduce the private cars in the city in recent

years. Registration of personal cars and Jeeps are increasing in every year. In the 2004,

registration of cars was less than 5000 thousand, just after 5 years it raised around 20,000

in the year 2010. That means, on an average, everyday 55 cars are adding to the existing

stock of traffics of Dhaka city. On the other hand, public transports like Bus and Mini-

Bus have not increased in proportion to the increase of population in Dhaka city. Very

insignificant numbers of buses in private and public level are added to the public

transport system. On an average, around 500-900 transits are added each year to support

mass people of Dhaka city.

Table 4:Year-wise motor vehicle registration 2004-2011

upto

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

upto

June

2012

Total

in

Dhaka

Total in

Country

Motor Car 87866 4734 5633 7403 10244 13749 17654 19557 10913 4494 182247 225036

Jeep/St. W 32391 2114 3303 4548 4372 5077 6803 6687 4841 2094 72230 98877

Taxi 9369 523 514 2662 0 0 10 0 0 0 10682 12301

Bus 2614 779 728 949 1082 1144 914 1101 1214 535 11060 40542

Minibus 7460 368 118 75 77 107 112 142 104 20 8583 36363

Truck 20342 1437 1104 1480 830 1642 3180 4543 4711 2319 41588 95922

Auto-

ricksha 10687 2344 139 230 121 155 1144 1362 2463 1646 20291 209322

Motor-

Cycle 119299 7872 12879 16284 17303 23713 22093 30264 34357 18116 302180 949047

Others 13187 1300 2361 2728 2913 2550 4868 12225 12741 4463 59336 84424

Total 303215 21471 26779 36359 36942 48137 56778 75881 71344 33687 708197 1751834

Source: BRTA, 2012

Transport planning and management in Dhaka City

Traffic and transport situation in Dhaka city is deteriorating over the years due to the

interplay of various related factors. However, one of the major problems behind the

traffic problems of the city is unplanned nature of the city growth of the Dhaka, the

capital of Bangladesh. Physical planning, especially proper land use planning generally

shapes the major traffic arterials as well as the demand for traffic movement is also

greatly shaped by the physical planning.

Physical planning and development is regulated by the development authority RAJUK

whereas the traffic control and management is governed by Dhaka Transport

Coordination Board named as DTCB. As a result, two different organizations are

responsible for land use planning and transportation planning for Dhaka City which

have resulted in coordination problems and mismanagement in physical planning that

ultimately exaggerating the transport problems of the city.

Planning efforts regarding transport and traffic in Dhaka city in the Past

Planning project and programs are always in the run for traffic management and

planning for Dhaka city for last couple of decades. However, despite all those planning

efforts, the traffic situation of the capital city has not been improved yet. Rather the

situation is getting worse day by day which ultimately have given rise to a big question

mark on those planning programs and efforts.

The Dhaka Urban Transport Project (DUTP) is the first major intervention for urban

transport in Dhaka City (Zohir, 2003) . It originated from the recommendations of a

study called Greater Dhaka Integrated Transport Study (DITS, 1994). The Project has

begun in March 1999 and was expected to be completed by the 2004. The total cost of the

Project was initally USD 234 million, of which IDA funded USD 177 million by loan. The

objectives of the project were to:

improve urban transport infrastructure and services in the Dhaka Metropolitan

Area (DMA) in an economically and environmentally sustainable manner; and

strengthen institutional and policy framework and address long-term transport

planning and coordination issues in the DMA. .

Table-5:Past Transport Projects/Studies on Dhaka City

Name of the Project Project Period

Dhaka Integrated Transport Study 1992-1994

DUTP - Dhaka Urban Transport Project 1997-1999

The Bus Route Franchising Study 2003

Strategic Transport Plan (STP) 2005

Study on Bus Operation in Dhaka City 2007

Dhaka Urban Transport Network Development Study (DHUTS) 2009

Greater Dhaka Sustainable Urban Transport Project 2010

Source: Dhaka Transport Coordination Board, 2012

Table-6: Ongoing Transport Projects

Name of the Project Project Period

BRT and Corridor Restructuring Implementation Study and Preliminary

Design Work for the Uttara-Mohakhali-Ramna-Sadarghat Corridor in Dhaka 2010- 2011

bus network and regulatory reform implementation study and design work 2010-2011

Review of DTCB Act and Motor Vehicle Ordinance (MVO) 2010-2011

Source: Dhaka Transport Coordination Board, 2012

After the completion of DUTP, the major plan that has been made for traffic and

transportation planning has been termed as Strategic Transport Plan (STP) for Dhaka

City which has been planned for 20 years starting from 2005 to 2024. Already 7 years

have been passed after finalization of STP, yet no significant improvement has been

observed in the traffic situation of the Dhaka city rather the sufferings of the people of

the city has been increased to great extent due to the traffic jam and related problems in

the city. If this is the case, then the major question arises here that what really went

wrong in the planning or if the planning is right here than what are the underlying

reasons for these worsened scenarios regarding transport system in Dhaka city.

Various policies have been suggested for proper functioning of traffic and transport

system in Dhaka city. National Land Transport Policy 2004 and recommendations

regarding transport services for Dhaka city cited in the Sixth Five Year Plan of

Bangladesh (FY 20011- FY 2015), National Urban Sector Policy (draft) -2011, and Policies

from Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan (1995-2015) etc; - these are some of policies

that could have been able to make some significant improvement in the transport system

of Dhaka city. But neither the abovementioned policies nor any of the programs could

solve the transport crisis of the capital city. Moreover, most of the transport and urban

planners are on the same opinion that the ongoing heavy investment infrastructure

projects might fail as well to solve the traffic problems of the Dhaka city in near future.

Institutional deficiencies responsible for traffic mismanagement of Dhaka City

There are various agencies under different ministries that are related to the traffic and

transportation system of Dhaka city. Institutions and agencies related to the transport

system of Dhaka city are namely- Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA),

Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation

(BRTC), Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), Roads and Highways Department (RHD),

Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), Ministry of Communication,

Planning Commission, RAJUK, DCC etc. Hence lack of coordination among these

agencies creates anomalies and mismanagement in the transport system of the city.

An overlapping of functions regarding traffic control and management exists between

the DCC and the DMP. This situation has arisen owing to the fact that Clause-118

(Traffic Control) of the Dhaka City Corporation Ordinance, 1983 and Clause-17 (a) of the

Dhaka Metropolitan Police Ordinance, 1976, both provide for the ‚control of traffic‛ on

the road. So far DCC has neither invoked this provision of the ordinance nor formulated

rules and regulations for the management of traffic. In spite of the poorly organized

regulations, DCC has installed traffic signals at a number of intersections, street lanes

have been marked, and new construction and maintenance of streets has been

undertaken. The remaining functions of traffic management such as management of

movement of traffic, determination of the direction of traffic flow, parking control,

stoppages of the vehicles on the street etc. are being performed by the DMP, in addition

to their main duties of enforcing traffic rules and regulations. Normally, traffic

management should be performed by the City Corporation and the enforcement of

traffic rules and regulations by the city police.

According to the proposals of STP, the police should be relieved of their duties to

organize and manage traffic flows. Instead this function will be transferred to DCC

under its mandate under clause – 118 of DCC ordinance, 1983. Accordingly, the clause

25 (b) & (c) of police regulations and clause 17(a) of DMP – ordinance, 1976 should be

amended to read ‚DMP will be responsible for the enforcement of law, traffic

regulations and safety‛. After installation of traffic signals, police officers should not

intervene in their operations. Instead there should be police at each signal point with

motorcycles to chase, apprehend and penalize violators of traffic regulations. This

change in emphasis away from traffic control will allow and require that the police re-

structure their organization to enhance the enforcement activities.

However, even after so many years after finalizing the STP, DMP is still performing the

traffic management activities of Dhaka city without having the requisite technical

expertise to deal this critical and technical matter. Moreover, agencies like RAJUK, who

should be engaged in the development control activities for planned development of the

city are trying to be engaged in the construction activities of Flyover’s in various parts of

the city. As a result, efficient transport management is quite absent here in Dhaka city

though we have a transport plan named STP whose recommendations and proposals

have not been given due importance by the policy makers of the country.

Examining the STP Proposals and Reality

Strategic transport plan (STP) for Dhaka city has been approved in 2005 for an period of

twenty years up to 2025. STP has proposed for installation of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT),

Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) as a solution of transport problems of Dhaka City among ten

alternative transportation strategies which were based upon an initial assessment of the

technical information from the travel demand model. These strategies include a broad

range of road investment, transit investment and various mixes of both road and transit

investments, together with other multi-modal transportation components comprising

the diverse system that serves Dhaka. The ten strategies are described in terms of three

distinct levels of increasing investment in roads (termed - ROADS+, ROADS++, and

ROADS+++) and three distinct levels of investment in mass rapid transit (by varying the

BRT and METRO components).

Table-7: Alternative Strategies of STP

Alternatives Roads Type BRT Metro Cost $ Total Points

From 8

goals

Rank

Base Roads Roads No No 149m

1a Roads + Roads BRT No 3.0bn 319 1

2a Roads ++ Extensive

Roads

BRT No 3.3bn 317 2

3a Roads +++ Elevated

Expressway

BRT No 4.2bn 283 3

2b Roads ++ Extensive

Roads

BRT Metro 5.8bn 274 4

1b Roads + Roads BRT Metro 5.5bn 272 5

3b Roads +++ Elevated

Expressway

BRT Metro 6.7bn 250 6

2c Roads ++ Extensive

Roads

No Metro 6.9bn 246 7

1c Roads + Roads No Metro 6.7bn 243 8

3c Roads +++ Elevated

Expressway

No Metro 7.9bn 223 9

3d Roads +++ Elevated

Expressway

No No 3.2bn 181 10

The ‚Roads‛ level refers to the committed projects mostly defined in the

DUTP project and comprising a basic 13 projects.

The ‚Roads +‛ is an investment in highways over the 20 year period

amounting to 42 projects of differing importance.

The ‚Roads ++‛ package adds a further 8 highways projects and strengthens

the developments in the fringe areas

Finally ‚Roads +++‛ adds an elevated expressway system in order to

represent a high-end auto-orientated strategy.

Figure-1: Proposed Plan for Mass Rapid Transit of STP

Source: STP, 2005

In deciding the best alternative out of ten, the following logic was used in order to

eliminate strategies and gradually arrive at the final selection.

Table-8: Stages for Selecting the Best Alternative for STP

Alternatives Logics

Stage-1 Eliminate

Strategy 3d

The majority of the populace in the city relies either on non-

motorized travel (walk, cycles, rickshaw, etc) or on public

transport for its mobility. Strategies without an emphasis on

public transport are not favoured.

Stage-2 Eliminate

Strategy- 2c,

Strategy- 3b

Strategy-3c

All these 3 strategies involve large financial resource to

implement. Considering provision of government financial

resource and flow of donors’ these strategies were not

considered.

Stage-3 Eliminate

Strategy-1a,

Strategy-1b,

Strategy- 1c

Contain just the Roads+ package but Dhaka need for additional

roads infrastructure in the fringe areas particularly the Eastern

and Western By-passes.

Stage-4 Eliminate

Strategy- 2a

Strategy- 3a

Two of the remaining three strategies (2a and 3a) have a

common theme which is an extensive mass rapid transit system

based on BRT technology alone. There is no Metro system in

these strategies.

Stage-5 Recommended

Strategy-2b

Blend of BRT and Metro is been recommended in STP.

While choosing the best alternatives among the 10 options, STP recommended

‚Strategy-2b‛ where it says,

Strategy 2b is recommended as the Selected Strategy because, in the

Consultants’ views it represents the best balance between public transport

provision and individual transport to serve the future needs of Dhaka and

also offers the optimum flexibility in mass rapid transit bearing in mind

full knowledge of the context of reasonably expected financial resources.

Strategy-2b included the following elements;

High quality mass rapid transit system (BRT and Metro

Basic level of road improvements plus several additional important access and

circulation roads, most notably the Eastern and Western Bypasses (50 road

projects

Average travel speed is high for public transportation users, moderate for users

of individual type transportation

Highest number of person kilometres of travel

No highest or lowest ratings for any of the goals

High initial cost (USD 4.2 billion excluding the BR investment); exceeding

potential financial capability

Annual operating subsidy: large for Metro component, small for BRT component

However, the consultants hold a pre-conceived idea of installing metro system in the

Dhaka city which have forced them to arrive at a conclusion at stage-4 to eliminate

Strategy 2-a and 3-a just only stating that “There is no Metro system in these

Strategies” without giving any technical reason and ignoring the subjective evaluation

conducted by the same consultants.

According to STP, ‚An assessment was made in STP study regarding the possible

financial budget which could be likely to be made available for transport infrastructure

in the Dhaka area. This figure was estimated by the STP team at $100 million per year or

$2 billions over the 20 year life of the study program. Only strategies 1a, 2a and 3d

would fall close to this figure. Increasing the budget by 50% would allow strategy 3a to

be considered. All other strategies would require an allocation of more than twice the

previous budget.‛

According to the Stage 2 of the assessment,

‚It is a fact of life that there are never, or hardly ever, unlimited resources. In

Bangladesh, this lack of resources is particularly evident. The STP team made an

estimate of the likely availability of financial resources for transportation infrastructure

in Dhaka. Taking account of the Government provision and making allowances for

donor provisions, the team estimated a figure of approximately USD$100m per year.

Hence over the 20 year life of the project, there would be a likely sum of USD$2billions

available. Allowing however, for additional funding from the Government and keen

interest from the private sector, the figure can be increased say by 100% to a total of

USD$4billions. Allowing for this increase, it is considered that any strategy which requires

more than 25% above this figure [i.e. about $5bn or more] will be difficult to mobilize. So the

Conclusion to be mad here – Eliminate Strategies 2c , 3b and 3c. “

If the above principle of eliminating those strategies that requires costing about $5bn or

more, Strategy 2-B should also be eliminated from the alternative choices. Moreover, the

reality is that, STP consultant has preferred a strategy termed as modified 2-B.

According to the executive summary of STP,

‚The Consultants developed a strategy which was based on 2b (namely a blend of BRT

and Metro) together with a middle ground between the Roads++ and the Roads +++

packages. Thus the blend of mass rapid transit systems was complemented by an

extensive roads program but a reduced program of elevated expressways. This

Modified 2b was the Preferred Strategy‛

The above-mentioned Modified 2-B Strategy truly can be termed as Strategy 3-B in the

subjective evaluation of alternative strategies, ranked as Sixth alternative which has a

costing over 5 billion us dollar.

Preferring lower ranked alternative strategy without considering the best ones

According to the subjective evaluation of alternative transport strategies of STP, it has

been found that Alternative Strategy of 1-A and 2-A are the most preferred strategies

among the others and subsequent costs for implementing those alternatives are quite

close in magnitude such as 3 billion for 1-A and 3.3 billion US dollar (27000 crores taka

apprx.). These two alternatives basically suggest constructing some new roads,

introducing BRT as a Mass Rapid Transit and increasing buses in great numbers in

various transport routes in the capital city.

In reality, STP have ignored its subjective evaluation in order to choose the best solution

for transport planning of the Dhaka city by selecting an Strategy which they called

Modified 2-B, in fact which has been termed as alternative 3-B in the list of alternatives

which has been ranked as 6th alternative in the subjective assessment by the consultants

of STP. This alternative basically suggests a blend of three components namely BRT,

Metro-Rail and Elevated Expressway for solving the traffic problems of Dhaka city with

an estimated budget of 6.7 billion dollar that is approximately 60 thousand crore taka

(STP, 2005).

However, STP have suggested in its Action Plan to implement BRT in its First Phase as it

is less costly and easy to implement in present physical setup of the city without facing

much obstruction. Moreover, Metro-Rail and Elevated Expressway can be constructed in

the later phases of STP’s Plan Implementation Period if sources of financing can be

ensured properly. As the amount of money needed to construct the mega investment

projects like Metro-rail and elevated expressway is too large for the developing country

like Bangladesh, the consultants of STP recommended that,

“As a final comment however, ultimately it is the people of Bangladesh, and Dhaka in particular,

through their elected representatives, and not the study Consultants, who must decide what is the

correct strategy for the Strategic Transportation Plan for Dhaka. Then and only then will there

be the support and ownership needed to garner and motivate the human and financial resources

needed to move forward with implementation, which ultimately is the overriding purpose of the

STP (STP,2005).”

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)- Less Costly but Not in the list of Priority Transport Project

In theory, BRT has emerged as an economically self-reliant mass transit system with

significant potential for budget-constrained developing cities. The successful BRT

systems, particularly in Latin American cities, have evolved through broad-based

participation of all the actors and fair distribution of costs, risk and benefits among the

same (Ardilla; Wright 2005). As cities are becoming increasingly overcrowded and

congested, with land prices rising rapidly, greater use of underground space enable us

to meet the increasing demand for more buildings and more extensive transport systems

(Chow, F.) Nevertheless, it is an irony of the fact that even the planning phase of BRT,

the most preferred program of STP, let alone the construction of BRT, has not started yet

even in the year of 2012, which was the most preferred strategy according to the STP

prepared in 2005. On the other hand, construction work of elevated express way has

already started in the city and the Metro-Rail project is expected to be started within

2012 according to the Communication Minister of the Country which are not the priority

programs according to the STP. However, Dhaka Transport Network Development

Study (DHUTS) – 2009, a study conducted by DTCB reveals that 1 km BRT lane can be

constructed with only mere 5% cost of that of Metro rail and it will take 50-75 million us

dollar to construct 1 km metro rail line whereas only 5 million dollar will be needed for

the BRT lane in the city.

Metro Rail- A subsidized Project to run by Public expenditure

According to Rahman, S.U. (2012), if government does not bear any subsidy for metro

rail in Dhaka city, one passenger has to pay 236 taka for any trip in the metro rail.

Besides, operating cost of metro rail per kilometer is annually 41.3 crores taka, as a result

operating cost of the whole metro rail will be 2200 crore taka in a year which will be a

major burden for the whole economy of the developing country like Bangladesh. If

government plans to give subsidy to reduce the trip cost of the passengers availing the

metro rail in the capital city of Dhaka, its impact will be huge for the common people of

the nation and the opportunity cost for the whole process, first at the stage of

construction and later at the stages of operation; will be immeasurable for the

developing country like Bangladesh which is still fighting hard for attaining the targets

of Millennium Developing Goals.

Elevated Expressway— “High end auto oriented strategy”

Elevated Expressway has been termed as ‚High end auto oriented strategy‛ according

to STP and the major target groups of elevated expressway is the automobile owners

who are very much insignificant in number in the proportionate share of total number of

trips in the Dhaka city. These expressways will collect high rate of tolls for using these

routes which will force the buses to avoid these routes or if they avail, the common

passengers have to pay heavier prices on their journeys which will not be affordable to

maximum people of the city. Besides, urban planners presume that, traffic jam will be

the common order on the entry and exit points of the routes of elevated expressway.

Mega Investment Projects are following each other which will ultimately create mega

problems in the future

It is an alarming fact for the greater socio-economic development of the country that,

series of mega investment projects have been planned one after another in the name of

transport projects to reduce traffic congestion of the city. Following the series of flyovers

planned for Mohakhali, jatrabari, kuril, gulistan, mogbazar-mouchak, gulistan; flyovers

have been even planned from Airport to Chondra named as Dhaka—Ashulila Elevated

Expressway (Natioanl Budget Speech by Finance Minister; 2012-13). For a poor country

like Bangladesh who does not have the affordability to build these type of

infrastructures, these types of mega projects will invite mega problems for Dhaka city as

well as for the total economy of the country. Moreover it is not the right strategy or

approach for combating the traffic problems of the city without giving blind eye to the

other alternative solutions for the problem.

Urban planners assumes that implementation of BRT in the initial phases of STP Period

could have solved the traffic problems of the city. As a result, the justification of

construction of Metro-Rail or Elevated Expressway in the later stages of the STP period

may have been proved to be null and void. As these types of mega projects are major

sources of corruption in the developing countries like ours, planners think that for these

reasons, our policy makers and implementing agencies have taken action-plans with

priority given to metro-rail and elevated expressway projects and have given less

priority or taken ‘slow progress policy’ for BRT project for Dhaka City.

Rickshaw free arterials have been filled up by Private Automobiles

According to DUTP, World Bank proposed a safety net for affected rickshaw pullers,

and informed the government that it would only support a continuation of the policy

of conversion of arterial roads to rickshaw-free operations if it can be demonstrated that:

the aggregate positive impacts of rickshaw-free arterial roads outweigh the

aggregate negative impacts

there is broad stakeholder support

the Bank’s safeguard policies for mitigation of adverse impacts on affected

persons are fully complied with. Specifically, the road space freed by rickshaws

should be used by public transport facilities, such as buses.

As per the recommendations from DUTP, several arterials of Dhaka city has been made

rickshaw free in order to reduce the traffic volume on the streets of the city. In reality,

private automobiles have replaced the rickshaws on the streets. Due to the unavailability

of public buses, people are forced to buy private cars which have increased the traffic

pressure on the roads. Hence the objective of the DUTP has been largely failed to attain.

Reasons behind the Failure of Past Transport Planning Attempts

Despite all the so called efforts to mitigate the traffic problems of Dhaka city, traffic

situation has not been improved in Dhaka city, rather it has been deteriorated.

Developing a Pro-People Mass Transit System was not the major goal of the previous

plans and programs which have been proved to be costly for the city dwellers.

Household Survey conducted for the STP reveals that about a one third city people use

rickshaws (34%), almost half (44%) use buses, 14% people prefer to walk and only 8%

people use ‚non-transit motorized‛ vehicles. ‚Non-transit motorized vehicle‛ includes

the user of car, pickup, auto-rickshaw, taxi, motorcycle etc. But the roads of Dhaka city

are always occupied with this type of vehicles. It seems, public expenditure is not being

spending on the pro-people public transport facilities rather highest priority is getting

the projects that serve minimum section of people having cars (less than 8% of total

modal share). Considering the socio-economy of city dwellers, affordability, resource of

the government, provision of infrastructure potentials etc a pro-people public transport

system extremely necessary for sustainability of Dhaka City. Only by paying due

attention to the improved public transport system for mass people can reduce the

congestion of Dhaka city.

“Pedestrian First Policy” of STP should be supported by requisite Programs and

Budgetary Allocations

According to Karim (1998), DITS established 151 traffic zones by dividing Dhaka

Metropolitan. An updating has been made in 1995, by Dhaka Metropolitan

Development Plan resulting in adjustment of the zones to conform to ward, mouza, and

pourashava boundaries. These traffic zones are used for traffic demand forecasting.

Future traffic demand has been estimated using the DITS origin destination matrix of

1992. Among 8.5 million weekday person trips, 64.9% are walk trips, 30.8% are public

transport trips, and 4.3% are private transport trips. If the current trend continues, it is

estimated that in the year 2015 weekday person trips will constitute 20 million by walk,

9.5 million by public transport, and 1.3 million by private transport.

STP recommended for ‚Pedestrian First Policy‛ for transport planning of the Dhaka City

but no significant improvement have been made in providing better pedestrian facilities

and allocation of budget for pedestrian facilities has been very low in the recent past

years. STP reveals that the proportion of trips made by walking is substantial and, for

some people walking is a matter of choice and convenience. However, the reality is that,

for many people, walking is a matter of economic necessity. According to some

estimates, nearly 40% of the footpaths are being occupied illegally. As a consequence,

pedestrians are often forced to walk in the street instead of on the footpaths. Pedestrians

walking on the road increase the risk of traffic-related pedestrian injuries and also have

an adverse effect on the capacity of the road, thereby increasing congestion. Available

information indicates that pedestrians are involved in half of all road collisions in the

city. Two-thirds of all traffic-related fatalities are pedestrians. In addition, the survey

data indicates that the average length of trips made by rickshaws is 2.34 kilometers. As a

result, proper designing of our footpaths and increasing the pedestrian facilities could

have been a major impact on reducing the trip numbers of rickshaws and in some cases

for automobiles which will reduce the impact of vehicular traffic on the major roads of

the city.

Present Situation regarding Transport System of DHaka

Implementation of the proposals of STP was planned in 4 different phases, consisting 5

years in each phase, starting from the day of adoption of the plan by the government.

STP was adopted in 2008 by the government of Bangladesh. So naturally, we are in the

ending year of Phase-1. The main thrust of the effort planned for Phase 1 is to improve

the public transport system leading to the eventual implementation of the BRT Line 1 &

BRT Line 2 and create some east-west links to open up more routes across the city. In

reality, after 4 years of phase 1, nothing has done for BRT development and whole

process of development of Metro Line - 6 (Mirpur up to Saidabad terminal) became

uncertain for the controversy of alignment change (Mahmud, M.A., 2012).

BRT experiences from some countries in the World

Cities around the world Latin America, Asia and Australia have introduced BRT as mass

transit system because of comparatively its low investment, flexibility and easy

construction.

Within 3 years time from 1980-2001, BRT has turned Bogota from a hopelessly

congested and polluted city of 8 million to a model transport system. This

people-oriented transport system restricts the use of private cars, and gives

priority to public transport. During this time, hundreds of kilometres of

sidewalks, bicycle paths and pedestrian streets were built to give space to the

BRT and people. Here, Bogota uses 165 passenger buses through exclusive

corridors on a contractual agreement with private operators (Wroblewski, 2005).

The 100-km long network manages to transport 35,000 people per hour per

direction (Rahman, 2007).

In 1975, Curitiba introduced a bus priority system at a cost of US$ 54 million, 300

times less than a subway and also less expensive than light rail (Herbst, 1992).

The integrated transport network has 72 km of exclusive bus lanes, 2,000 buses

and 233 ‘tube stations’ where passengers pay the fare and board buses via ramps.

Curitiba’s buses transport 1.3 million passengers per day which is four times the

number of subway passengers in Rio de Janeiro, a city of 10 million residents and

more than six times the size of Curitiba (Hensher, 1999).

On-going flyover projects in Dhaka City

In the recent years Government of Bangladesh is more interested to construct flyovers

and elevated expressways. Billions of Taka is spending for that in a poor country to

reduce the traffic congestion. But Strategic Transport Plan, the only approved plan for

transportation in Dhaka city, does not say so. STP gave the major thrust on to develop a

mass transport system with the combination of BRT and Metro.

Major on-going road projects in Dhaka City;

Jatrabari-Gulistan, a nine kilometer long four lane, flyover estimated cost Tk

1,3.32 billion e

On-going flyover at ‚Mirpur-Airport Road and overpass at Banani rail gate‛ cost

has gone up to Taka 3.6 billion

Kuril-Bishwa Road fly over Tk 2.54 billion

Future Transport Projects in Dhaka City

Government of Bangladesh is planning to construct freeways/elevated expressways to

overcome traffic congestion in the city. Flyovers and elevated expressways involve huge

public expenses to construct that will virtually serves the needs of private transport

owners. According to STP study, only 7% households of Dhaka city use personal

transport like; private car, jeep, micro, station wagon and pick-up etc. The irony is, rest

93% people of the city will suffer congestion because the road capacities below the

flyovers will be reduced by at least 20 percent of the original capacity. Such facilities are

of little benefit to buses, since buses generally move at ground level given the need for

passenger to board and alight. They do not benefit the very large majority of people in

the city and portrays a policy which cannot be sustainable. (Nabi, 2008). On this issue

Enrique Penalosa said, “Trying to solve traffic jams by building more road infrastructure is

like trying to put out a fire with gasoline.” Some of the future projects are;

26- kilometer long Dhaka city Elevated Expressway at a cost of 8,703 crore Taka

Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover, a 6.1 kilometer long with two levels having eight

lane, will be costing 772 crore Taka.

Dhaka-Ashulia Expressway

When cities around the world are knocking down the freeways and elevated

expressways, in Bangladesh new projects are being initiated for long elevated

expressway in a hope to reduce traffic congestion. Many cities of Korea and USA have

already removed their freeways and replaced them with surface public service route of

BRT.

Major learning’s from the experiences of many countries show that elevated expressway

cannot solve the traffic congestion and other is automobile must be cut-off and replaced

by mass transit system.

Suggested Proposals to Provide Better Transport System for Dhaka City:

Congestion gives rise a negative externality as any increase in the number of vehicles

using the road slows down other users of the road. Government could restrict small

occupancy vehicles and private cars and introduce large size buses, the cheapest form of

public transport in Dhaka city, at affordable fare and thus possibly could solve both the

congestion, and travel and access problems of the city

To reduce the congestion and delay time in Dhaka’s road, first thing is to reduce small

occupancy vehicles, private car for instance, and simultaneously make available higher

occupancy vehicle, like Buses and mini-buses, by increasing their frequency in operation.

Moreover, following proposals have been given in order to ensure better transport

system for Dhaka city.

Implementation of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Project according to the proposals of

STP without any delay. BRT is comparatively easy to develop, less expensive and

useful from the passengers’ side.

Stopping all ‚Auto-oriented‛ transport infrastructural investment: elevated

expressway, for instance. It will encourage more private cares in the city that

can’t simply afford this city any more

Increasing the number of buses plying in the city in order to improve the mass

transit system. The urban poor would particularly benefit from improved bus

service, better pedestrian facilities and support for non-motorized transport

(NMT), which employs a large number of poor operators (Zohir, 2003)

Mega investment projects like Metro-Rail Projects which will have a negative

impact on the overall economy of the country and Opportunity Cost of these

projects will be very much high for a poor and developing country like

Bangladesh. So it should be stopped immediately.

Improving the rail system to improve the intra – city rail network with the help

of the existing rail network within the city.

Constructing ‘Over-pass’ in the rail crossings of the city to reduce the delay of

traffic at those rail crossing intersections.

Stopping the construction of unnecessary and unplanned Fly-over’s in various

parts of the city.

Improving the ‘Pedestrian Facilities’ in the light of the ‚Pedestrian First Policy‛

of STP and increasing the budget for pedestrian facilities.

Limiting the number of private automobiles in the roads by regulatory measures.

Stopping unauthorized car parking on roads to increase the efficiency of the

existing roads.

Decentralization of services and facilities from Dhaka city according to the

recommendations of Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan (DMDP) which will

ultimately reduce the travel demand in the Dhaka city.

Conclusion

An affordable mass transport system is extremely needed for the people of Dhaka city

who rely heavily on public transportation system. In addition, safe and easy walking

footpath should be designed to make a pedestrian friendly city for the city dwellers

which will ultimately reduce the dependency on personal cars as well as on rickshaws.

By and large, this paper intends to identify the real problems regarding the transport

planning and traffic management of the Dhaka city, the institutional problems

associated with those problems, as well as to find out the possible solutions of transport

problem of Dhaka city that are affordable, feasible and public-oriented. Findings of this

study might help the related organizations to get some ideas for further thoughts

regarding feasible transport solution for mega city Dhaka.

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