PROVISION AND NECESSITY OF RAPID RAIL SERVICE IN DHAKA CITY AS A PART OF STRATEGIC TRANSPORT PLANNING: AN EXTROSPECTION

Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh is one of the least motorized mega cities in the world with a current population of over 16 million at annual growth rate of nearly 4.3 percent. The rapid rise in population along with increased and versatile urban land use patterns has generated considerable travel demand as well as numerous transport problems in Dhaka. It has resulted in deterioration in accessibility, service levels, safety, comfort, operational efficiency and urban environment. The congestion and pollution problems are rapidly growing due to the combined effects of rapid motorization and urbanization. There is now an ever-increasing urgency for mitigating the complex transportation problems in Dhaka by augmentation of mass transit modes. It is observed that share of mass transit is very low which is only 27 percent of vehicular trips and walking still remains as the dominant travel mode with nearly 62 percent of total person trips. In the absence of a dependable and adequate public transport system, major share of road space remains occupied by the small capacity vehicles. The existing mass transit system in the form of bus has not been able to increase its share of catering demand for its service deficiencies like crowded condition, long waiting time, lack of easy transfer, large distance of bus stops from origin, long boarding time. There is an urgent need for augmentation of present mass transit system to cater for such service deficiencies. In this paper an attempt has been made to venture for a standard mass transit system to provide the desired service characteristics. As a potential mass transit option in Dhaka, rail based mass transit system tramway has been highlighted with description of its inherent benefits of cost and service characteristics with particular reference to the prevailing socio-economic context and in the light of major themes of different studies