[🇧🇩] City Buses, Metro Rail, Urban Transport & City Road Infra

[Bilal9]

Dhaka Madani Avenue (Sylhet Highway connector) construction update

 

[Bilal9]

 

[Saif]

Don’t turn metro rail into a status symbol

Imposing VAT on metro fares and taking the service further away from the poor, it risks becoming more like a status vehicle—which rich commuters already have plenty of.

www.thedailystar.net

VAT on metro fare
Don't turn metro rail into a status symbol

PHOTO: Monorom Polok

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about the proposed imposition of a 15 percent VAT on the Dhaka metro rail service. The metro train ticket is currently VAT-exempt, a facility that will expire on June 30.

The National Board of Revenue is unwilling to extend the exemption as part of efforts to generate revenue for funding development projects aimed at making Bangladesh a developed nation by 2041. However, on Sunday, the road transport and bridges minister, Obaidul Quader, said that he had requested the prime minister to reconsider NBR's decision.

The minimum fare for the metro rail is Tk 20, while the per-kilometre fare is set at Tk 5. On the other hand, the per-kilometre fare in a city bus is set at Tk 2.42 and the minimum fare at Tk 10. So, on the surface, the metro fare may not seem much. But for many people from lower-income backgrounds, the difference between the bus and metro rail fares is significant enough to deter them from using the rail service. This difference further adds up when you cover the whole distance between Uttara and Motijheel. For the one-fifth of the population living below the poverty line, it means that they cannot use the service even at its current fare despite its comfort and fast commute times.​

To read the rest of the news, please click on the link above.

 

[Bilal9]

2nd Road Link being built over Turag River from Uttara to Tongi.

 

[Bilal9]

Current Status of 48 KM Gazipur to NarayanGanj Dhaka-Bypass Expressway

 

[Bilal9]

Bogra City portion of Dhaka-Elenga-Rangpur 6 lane highway

 

[Bilal9]

Current status of Dhaka's Newest DOHS and suburb Jolshiri - which is also the country's latest smart city project.

 

[Bilal9]

Dhaka Metro MRT Line 1 is the 2nd Metro Line to be built after the first - MRT Line 6. Depot construction for MRT-1 is proceeding apace.

 

[Saif]

2 MRT lines may miss deadline

The metro rail authorities are likely to miss the 2030 deadline for completing two of the six planned metro lines in Dhaka as they have not yet started carrying out feasibility studies for the two lines.

www.thedailystar.net

2 MRT lines may miss deadline
Feasibility studies for MRT-2 and 4 yet to start

The metro rail authorities are likely to miss the 2030 deadline for completing two of the six planned metro lines in Dhaka as they have not yet started carrying out feasibility studies for the two lines.

With the consultants already hired, the authorities are set to start conducting the feasibility study for Mass Rapid Transit Line-4. But the progress of the MRT Line-2 project is disappointing as the financier for the feasibility study has not yet been found, let alone hiring a consultant for the work, officials concerned said.

Once the feasibility studies are done and financiers are found, the authorities will have to go through a long process -- preparing a project proposal, having it approved, acquiring land, preparing a detailed design, and floating tenders to hire contractors, they said.

To read the rest of the news, please click on the link above.​

 

[Saif]

Dhaka’s transport turmoil

Dhaka is the world's rickshaw capital

www.thedailystar.net

Dhaka's transport turmoil

The manoeuvring and manipulation of the public transport system remains a perennial source of pain and suffering for commuters and non-commuters alike. PHOTO: PRABIR DAS

Dhaka is the world's rickshaw capital. It is also arguably the mobile museum of broken buses. For a city that aspires to be smart, paddle rickshaws and rickety buses past their recyclable years seem to be an anathema. Yet, they reign in scandalous glory. To exacerbate the situation, the city has incorporated indigenous innovations to power the paddle rickshaws and disregarded the laws pertaining to dilapidated buses. The manoeuvring and manipulation of the public transport system remains a perennial source of pain and suffering for commuters and non-commuters alike.

To read the rest of the news, please click on the link above.​

 

[Bilal9]

Modern Electric Rickshaws taking over on side streets in larger towns in Bangladesh

 

[Bilal9]

Speed guns used by Metro Police on Purbachal Expressway

 

[Bilal9]

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)Line 3 construction update 5/26/2024. BRT runs from Dhaka Int'l Airport to Gazipur North of Dhaka. They are planning to inaugurate the service with Electric buses but no use raising our hopes until we see this for real.

 

[Saif]

Bangabandhu tunnel: Expenditure much higher than income

According to the bridge division, over 4,500 vehicles have used the tunnel every day on average so far. It was predicted that at least four times that number of vehicles would use the tunnel. Daily average income from the toll of the tunnel is Tk 11,80,000 taka. On the other hand, the average...

en.prothomalo.com

Bangabandhu tunnel: Expenditure much higher than income
Anwar Hossain & Sujan GhoseDhaka and Chattogram
Published: 28 May 2024, 08: 44

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Tunnel in ChattogramFile photo

The tunnel built under the Karnaphuli River in Chattogram is not getting as much traffic as expected yet resulting in less than expected toll collection. As of now, the revenue generated from the tunnel is much less than maintenance costs and toll collection.

According to the bridge division, over 4,500 vehicles have used the tunnel every day on average so far. It was predicted that at least four times that number of vehicles would use the tunnel. Daily average income from the toll of the tunnel is Tk 11,80,000 taka. On the other hand, the average daily expenditure for collection and maintenance of this toll is Tk 3.75 million.

The main length of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Tunnel built under the Karnaphuli river is 3.32 km. It is the first under-river tunnel in the country. The tunnel was built with Chinese loans and Bangladesh government funding.

Sources from Bangladesh Bridges Authority said paying the installments of loan taken from China would start from this year. As the income is less than expected, maintenance cost would have to be paid from income generated from other bridges. As a result, the government will have to pay a subsidy from the revenue sector to pay the loan.

The tunnel has eased the commute as crossing the road now takes three to three and half minutes. However, economists , businessmen and bridges authority said the roads on the one side of the tunnel were not widened. The Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) has not taken much initiative to expand the city on the other side of Karnaphuli river. There should be industrialization centering the tunnel. The use of the tunnel could be increased once these initiatives are taken.

Bridges division's secretary Md Monjur Hossain told Prothom Alo that work to connect Cox's Bazar and Matarbari with the tunnel is going on. The use of the tunnel and income would increase if it can be connected with Cox's Bazar and Matarbari roads.

About the repayment of the installment of the Chinese loan, he said the matter is now under the finance ministry.

To read the rest of the news, please click on the link above.​

 

[Bilal9]

Feasibility study for MRT Line-4 begins in June
The metro rail authority will start the feasibility study for Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Line-4 next month, which is supposed to link Dhaka with Narayanganj's Madanpur.
The consultants hired for the job have reached Dhaka and held a meeting with the metro railway authorities on Monday.
"They [consultants] will first visit the project area and will mobilise their manpower to start the study next month," MAN Siddique, managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd (DMTCL), told The Daily Star on Monday.

He said a consortium of four South Korean companies will carry out the feasibility study and prepare a basic design for the project. Korea will finance the work.

The consortium is supposed to complete the work within one and a half years, he said, adding that they will prepare the project's basic design to get its estimated cost.

The physical works on MRT Line-1 and MRT Line-5 (northern route) started last year, while a project proposal for MRT Line-5 (southern route) is now pending with the Planning Commission for approval.

MRT Line 4 and 2 are lagging behind in terms of preparation and may miss the deadline to complete the lines within 2030, officials said.
Although feasibility of MRT Line-4 is going to start, the financier for the feasibility study of MRT Line-2 has not yet been found, let alone hiring a consultant for the work, they added.

Once the feasibility studies are done and financiers are found, the authorities will have to go through a long process -- preparing a project proposal, having it approved, acquiring land, preparing a detailed design, and floating tenders to hire contractors, they said.

All these preparatory works usually take three to four years, which is why the authorities may not be able to meet the deadline for these projects, officials feared.

Asked whether they will be able to complete MRT Lines 2 and 4 within the stipulated time, Siddique said, "Let us start the work first, and then we will figure out if we can meet the deadline."

As per the preliminary plan, MRT Line-4 is supposed to be built from Kamalapur to Narayanganj underground.

However, metro rail authorities later changed the plan as Bangladesh Railway is expanding the existing lines from Dhaka to Narayanganj.

Its new 16km route will stretch from Dhaka to Narayanganj's Madanpur via Signboard. In May last year, the government signed a MoU with South Korea to finance the project.

As per the pre-feasibility study, the route will have both underground and elevated sections. The possible alignment would be Kamalapur, Sayedabad, Jatrabari, Shanir Akhra, Signboard, Chittagong Road, Kanchapur and Madanpur.