Gazipur-airport stretch to be ready in 2018

Construction of the 23km Gazipur-airport stretch of the rapid bus service popularly known as BRT will be completed by end of 2018, said the project's director at a roundtable discussion in the capital yesterday.

Detailed design of the route is set to be completed by this June and the construction is to start after tendering process by end of next year, said Afil Uddin, project director.

He said the 255 million US dollar facility would be built with funding from Asian Development Bank, Agence Francaise de Development of France and the Bangladesh government.

The discussion "Role of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) as a Traffic Solution for Dhaka City" organised by Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority with support from The Daily Star and a communication firm Expressions was held in The Daily Star Centre.

The deadline also include the time required for construction of a three-km elevated section and six elevated overpasses of the BRT route, said Afil Uddin.

BRT is a transport facility with dedicated, improved and articulated (conjoined) rapid bus service to carry an estimated 15,000 passengers per hour in one direction and will partially resolving traffic congestion and public woes in the capital, according to experts.

It will occupy two central lanes (6.5-metre wide) of the existing road dedicated for faster bus service.

On the other hand, the 22km long rapid bus service known as BRT-3 stretching from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to Keraniganj is currently trying to woo 250 million US dollars to implement the scheme with the detailed design done, said its project director Anisur Rahman.

"While we have not yet got any World Bank guarantee for funding of the 277-million US dollar scheme, we also need strong political support to overcome various physical barriers on the way of the scheme," he said.

The World Bank-funded Clean Air and Sustainable Environment (CASE) project under which the detailed design of the airport-Keraniganj BRT has been carried out, comes to an end in this June.

Nearly 2.1 million trips take place every day in the capital city of which about 28 percent take place on foot, another 28 percent by public bus, 39 percent cent by rickshaw while only 5 percent travel by private cars, said Anisur.

While the Gazipur section will have 25 stations, the airport-Keraniganj section will have 16 with an elevated overpass at Mohakhali intersection exclusively for the BRT.

Transport planner and former adviser to DTCA Tanwir Nawaz, and Rajuk Chairman GM Jainal Abedin Bhuiya, among others, also spoke.