Urban transport
Photo: Tanvir Ahmed / Driknews
An article on this important subject was published in a local daily on 27 April. This should attract the attention of the relevant government authorities. Commuter transport in and around Dhaka is becoming more chaotic day by day! Cheap and convenient mass transport facility is badly needed. Railway offers attractive possibilities and with smaller investment, it can be a good and a viable solution! We have dual railway tracks from Narayanganj all the way up to Tongi. This will cover most of the greater Dhaka area and all the industrial belts around. We can have, say, ten railcars running up and down between these two locations; with the frequency determined by the traffic pattern. Such service can be limited between 5:00am to say 11:00pm, so that workers of all the shifts can utilise it. Railway fare will naturally be cheaper than bus fare, and the journey far safer than bus travel. This proposal will be much less capital intensive than the additional track proposed; possibly based on the often floated circular railway idea. With facilities for monthly or quarterly travel pass, this will involve less hassle in avoiding buying tickets daily, and less crowd at the station. This idea should be tried out, as our railway tracks are not that busy, and five more services, with some closer frequency between trains around say 8:00 to 9.30am and from 5:00 to 7:00pm when passenger density should be higher! The railway department may try this out, and the government should provide funds for importing the railcars.
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