Plan to construct subway to ease traffic jam

The government plans to construct subway in the city to ease the acute traffic congestion and reduce transportation costs. The subway project proposal is likely to be placed at the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs today for approval, sources in the Ministry of Communications said.
This will be the second project under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative taken by the present grand alliance government.
Under the project, 52 kilometers line will be constructed with about 50 stations, each 1.4 kilometers apart. The estimated project cost is 3.1b dollars, sources said.
It is estimated that about 10,00,000 people will be able to travel along six routes everyday. Minimum fare has been fixed at Tk 5 while maximum Tk 25. The project will be operated on Build Operate Transfer (BOT) basis, sources said.
A senior official of the Communication Ministry said the government has taken the project so that city dwellers particularly, people of medium and low income group can get relief from communication hassles.
He said traffic congestion is one of the major problems in the mega city of Dhaka with about one and half a crores people but there are shortage of transports and roads.
The official said the four-party alliance government had taken the project but did not implement. The present government has taken the project with due importance and taken the imitative soon after taking office in January this year.
He said the Communication Ministry is placing the project before the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs after thorough examination as it was sent back to the ministry for further scrutiny.
“The subway was once a dream in Bangladesh. Now it is a matter of time,” he observed.
The official said the Cabinet Committee may approve the floating of tender of the project and proposal to form Major Terms and Conditions Committee.
Ministry sources said the previous government had taken an initiative to launch magnetic trains in the country but later it tracked back from the project.
The caretaker government had taken the initiative to construct the subway and later the present government decided to implement it.

Courtesy of The New Nation