Underground Metro/Subway System for Dhaka

[Tmac]

Originally Posted by sathya_226

Dhaka nd bldesh govt should learn something from india (delhi metro)

certainly we can all learn things from each other. India can learn many things from Bangladesh as well.

[sathya_226]

yeah of course!

[tareq79]

There was a news item on this project on the day just after Eid which I nearly missed. A meeting was held and it may commence in June, 08 according to Contech CEO when interviewed. As newspaper publication was stopped for three days for Eid, I couldn't get to any detail on this. Has anybody here not missed the news and can give some details? Anyway, so it is not in limbo IMO.

[G2G]

Is there any update on this soomwhere in the web??

[amar11372]

So for as I could tell there is a big buzz going on about establishing a 52 KM long Subway service underground Dhaka, predicted to start on June 08; But I couldn't find any real news source about it. I think the govt should go ahead with this proposal from Contech, since its BOT (build operate transfer) the gov't wouldn't have to spend a dime on this project.

[alladin212]

Metro rail work before power handover
Says adviser Matin
Staff Correspondent

The caretaker government might start the construction work of metro rail or elevated expressway before it hands over power next year, the communications adviser said yesterday.

"We want to start the work as soon as possible. Hopefully we will start next year," Communication Adviser Maj Gen (retd) MA Matin said.

He was talking to the journalists following a presentation on proposed metro rail service in Dhaka city by Contech Ltd at the auditorium of communications ministry. The company was the lowest bidder in the international tender invited.

The government would decide about which one to be given priority, metro rail or elevated expressway, after conducting a study, the communications adviser said adding that the Board of Investment (BOI) will conduct the study soon.

Following the BOI study, an international tender will be floated again and the work order will be given to the lowest bidder, Matin said. The BOI would finish their study within December, he added.

In their presentation, the Contech Ltd said that the soil of Dhaka city is suitable for constructing underground metro rail line. According to their plan, the metro rail would ply six routes in the city and the fares would range from Tk 5 to Tk 25. The project would take four and half years to complete.

Initially, the company would lay the underground tracks in very shallow depth; only 24 feet below the surface.

Experts from different departments concerned as well as from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) were present at the session.

Following the presentation, the experts observed that the design and planning should have provision for expansion of the metro railway service as the city is going to expand towards the east and south.

They were also for making a proper planning of traffic management while constructing the metro railway.

http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=5601

[G2G]

I wonder, this project will ever see the completion like so many others. Lets hope for the best.

[TIslam]

Originally Posted by tanzirian

Certainly we can learn from other places, however keep in mind that Delhi does not have the same environmental challenges as Dhaka; also India has a lot more money to spend than BD at this stage of our development.

True, but Bangladesh planners should try to glean information on the "hows" and "whats" of Mumbai Metro which was announced sometime back. If they can build a Metro there, Dhaka shouldn't be a problem. If Mumbai expat friends tell me that you hit water after just digging two feet into the ground around Mumbai.

[Sridhar]

As far as I can tell, there are no technical challenges for the construction of a metro in Dhaka. If an underground metro is expensive, how about a (mostly) elevated line? Even in Delhi, most of the network is elevated - there are short underground sections only in some short stretches, like in the heart of the city and in old Delhi, where there is no space for an elevated line or an elevated line will spoil the heritage architecture.

Mumbai will have a largely elevated network in the outer parts of the city, with one long line being almost entirely underground due to unavailability of surface space.

[TIslam]

Originally Posted by Sridhar

As far as I can tell, there are no technical challenges for the construction of a metro in Dhaka. If an underground metro is expensive, how about a (mostly) elevated line? Even in Delhi, most of the network is elevated - there are short underground sections only in some short stretches, like in the heart of the city and in old Delhi, where there is no space for an elevated line or an elevated line will spoil the heritage architecture.

Mumbai will have a largely elevated network in the outer parts of the city, with one long line being almost entirely underground due to unavailability of surface space.

Well, that's the way it should be. Even the London Underground has vast stretches of its network, above ground.

[clearsky]

Well, the proposed Dhaka underground railway system is supposed to have 25 KM of track underground, out of 52 KM. The rest will be above ground.

[manbil777]

Even Kolkata's lines were laid shallow -- mostly cut-and-cover as I remember...

[Tmac]

Subway project for Dhaka to come under review today

The council committee on economic affairs in a meeting today (Monday) will review the proposed metro sub-way project -- worth nearly US$900 million -- aimed at improving future traffic management in the capital, sources said.

Finance and planning adviser Mirza Azizul Islam will chair the meeting and may approve the much-talked-about infrastructure project to be implemented by a private entrepreneur on Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis.

The present caretaker administration was reluctant to deal with the project initially and wanted the next political government to deal with it. But it changed its stance since November last, sources added.

The ministry of communication that is seeking approval expects positive response from the council committee on economic affairs as a technical committee, a couple of month ago, decided to give priority to the metro sub-way project.

Compared to other proposals such as elevated express-way and mono-rail, the proposed metro sub-way, known as tube rail, is most suitable for a highly populous city like Dhaka, said a senior ministry official.

The official said it is essential to construct communication infrastructure like underground railway in the city for solving the traffic problem and easing transportation.

Dhaka has emerged as the eighth most populous city in the world with its present population of 1.35 million and an annual growth rate of 3.02 per cent.

The growth rate of city's vehicles is 8.1 per cent annually. The present number of vehicles plying in the city streets is more than 0.4 million compared to 35,458 in 1971.

The official pointed out that existing road infrastructure was insufficient to cope up with the steady growth of both vehicles and commuters of the capital and from its surrounding areas.

According to the communication ministry, the proposal for the construction of a tube rail in the capital was first floated in 2001 when the Bangladesh Railway sought expression of interest from private entrepreneurs to construct it.

Contech Limited, a local construction firm, proposed to build the 52-kilometre underground railway network with six major routes around the capital at a cost of $899.55 million.

The construction, as per proposal of the firm, will be 'cut and cover' method and will be completed in four years. The whole process will be carried out by a consortium of a number of foreign and local organisations.

The construction firm proposed operate the tube train for 34 years before transferring it to the government.

http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.co...&news_id=21818

[Tmac]

Subway project for Dhaka city gets govt body's nod

The Advisers' Committee on Economic Affairs (ACEA) Monday gave a nod to the proposed Dhaka City Underground Railway Project for enlisting it with the Private Infrastructure Committee (PICOM) for considering it as per Bangladesh Private Sector Infrastructure Guideline, reports UNB.

PICOM, as a policymaking body of the government, deals with the private sector-sponsored infrastructure projects, which are planned to be implemented on Build-Own-Operate (BOO) or Build-Own-Transfer (BOT) basis.

A Thai private firm moved an unsolicited offer to the government to construct a 52-km underground subway across the capital city at a cost of Tk 60.00 billion. The project is considered to be a prime solution to the city's vexing traffic congestion.

As per the proposal, the Thai private firm will implement the project on BOT basis within three years from signing of the contract.

Finance Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam presided over the meeting of ACEA, also known as the Cabinet Economic Affairs Committee.

The committee also decided to form a high-level committee, headed by the energy secretary, to further scrutinise the proposal for holding the 3rd round international bidding for hydrocarbon exploration in the country's maritime territory.

The Energy Ministry moved the proposal to invite international bidding, and also placed a model production-sharing contract for the committee's consideration.

As per the decision of the Advisers' Committee, representatives from Finance Ministry, IMED, NBR, Law Ministry, Navy, and Bangladesh Bank will be included in the energy secretary-led committee, which was asked to place its report before the cabinet within two weeks.

The committee also nodded to a proposal of the Food Ministry to buy 20 million pieces of jute bags from the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) without giving a mandatory 10 per cent performance guarantee payment.

http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.co...&news_id=21915


Cabinet body approves underground railway project

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Monday endorsed a proposal by the communications ministry to have an underground railway network built by the private sector to mitigate traffic congestion in the capital.

The economic affairs committee, headed by finance and planning adviser Mirza Azizul Islam, however, decided to send the proposal to the Private Infrastructure Committee, which deals with large private sector infrastructure projects, for scrutiny.

‘We have primarily approved the construction of an underground railway system in the city,’ Mirza Azizul Islam told reporters after the meeting.

Communications ministry officials said the cabinet committee’s decision to send the project to the PICOM was surprising as it had approved the project in September 2006 when it was headed by the principal secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office.

The proposal was sent to the cabinet committee for approval to list the mega-project as a private sector projects so that the ministry could start the feasibility study and other relevant work to implement the project, said officials.

‘It is not clear to us why the project needs the PICOM’s approval for the second time,’ said an official.

He said that the proposal was placed before economic affairs committee as it had already been approved by the PICOM.

In November communications adviser MA Matin, at a meeting, decided to award the contract for building the underground railway system to the most competitive bidder on the ‘build own operate’ basis to solve the intolerable transport congestion in the capital.

The provision for constructing an underground railway system was also included in the Strategic Transport Planning for Dhaka which is yet to be approved by the government.

Earlier, the communications ministry suggested a similar project and recommended Contech Ltd, a local firm, for building a 52-km underground railway at a cost of around Tk 6,200 crore on the ‘built-own-operate’ basis.

The ministry in June 2006 selected Contech as it was the lowest bidder in the pre-qualification tender floated by the Bangladesh Railway in 2002. Only two firms, however, took part in the bidding.

Contech offered to build the underground system at a cost of Tk 6,200 crore in four years and to hand it over to the government 34 years later as it sought a 30-year concession to recover its investment and make an adequate amount of profit.

According to Contech’s project design, the underground network will have six routes with double lines touching all the busy and strategic points of the city, with Tongi, Syedabad, Gabtali, Mohakhali, Farmgate, New Market and Sadarghat as some of the important junctions.

http://www.newagebd.com/met.html

[Tmac]

Originally Posted by Tmac

Subway project for Dhaka city gets govt body's nod

what does it mean? It seems every few months various projects get govt. nod and then nothing happens.

[Tmac]

Tk 6,200cr metro plan okayed



The advisory committee on economic affairs yesterday approved a proposal for construction of a subway in Dhaka by a private sector firm with an estimated cost of Tk 6,200 crore.

The underground rail system will be constructed on Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis under the supervision of Bangladesh Railway, meeting sources said.

"We have approved the proposal to include the Picom (Private Infrastructure Committee) list and now the remaining processes will be done to implement the project," Finance Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam, who chaired the meeting, said.

As the proposal made by the Board of Investment (BoI) has the nod, the government will now float fresh international tender inviting proposals and at the same time, the Planning Commission will prepare a detailed study on the project, sources said.

Once built, the subway will save Tk 5,319 crore per year through saving human working hours and stopping wastage of imported fuel during traffic congestions, says the BoI proposal.

While the experts say that it requires for any mega city to have roads covering at least 25-30 percent of its area for easy traffic movement, the roads and avenues of Dhaka cover only 5-6 percent.

According to the BoI proposal, the 52-kilometre subway would have six routes with 50 stations connecting almost 80 percent of the city area. The underground rail system will have the capacity to transport 40 lakh passengers monthly on an average.

The first route would start from Gabtoli and end at Saidabad via Mohakhali and it would be connected with the second route, which is Uttara to Mohakhali, at the Mohakhali central bus depot.

The third route of Pallabi to IDB Bhaban will be connected with the first route as well.

The fourth route will be from Shyamoli to Elephant Road, which will cover Shyamoli, Adabor, Mohammadpur, Dhanmondi, Zigatola, Rayerbazar and Hazaribagh areas. It will be connected with the first route at Shyamoli and Elephant Road forming the first inner loop.

Starting from Saidabad, the fifth route will end at Tejgaon Satrasta via Malibagh, Moghbazar and Kamalapur Rail Station. It will also be connected with the first route and it will form the second loop almost as long as the first loop in the network.

Completing the entire network, the sixth route from Saidabad to Gulistan will connect all the entry points of the mega city.

The initiative to construct the subway in Dhaka was taken during the BNP-Jamaat-led government and a private company was primarily selected for the project.

After assuming power, the present caretaker government halted the work of the project and in February last year, it said that the next political government would complete the work.

Later in November that year, the government, however, shifted from its decision and made a fresh move about the project considering it as a priority work to ease traffic congestion of the capital.

http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=18321

[mirzazeehan]

This govt. is moving on with this project really fast..when do you guys think we will actually see the work start?

[amar11372]

Originally Posted by Tmac

what does it mean? It seems every few months various projects get govt. nod and then nothing happens.

Todays decision was final. I believe The council committee on Economic Affairs is the highest governing body dealing with developments and infrastructures. Now the govt will go for a international tender and if another company bids for a lower concession time it will go to that company; if no other bids then Contech with MTR(Technical partner) of Hong Kong will get the project. I just hope they start soon. By the map from the dailystar that Tmac posted, the network looks pretty extensive. All the best to Contech & MTR.

[snoq]

Contech, local construction firm who is pushing the project is actually a proxy company of Sena Kallyan Songstha. And guess who is going to arrange 6000 cr taka for the project? Well none other than Trust bank - defence forces bank. Now if you do the calculation with who are running the country you can see why there is fast track approach on the project.

About 50% of the underground train would be above ground. Since taxpayer has to pay the cost overtime there has to be independent verification on what should be the real cost on half underground and half over land project. People should not be fooled with 100% underground cost when 50% will be over ground. Most importantly there was not any feasibility study done on this project. And Contect has no experience what so ever in any such project. We have seen corruption charges brought against similar contract awarded on Jatrabari flyover project. Project is dead now and people are suffering (I just came back from BD seeing people suffering). I hope this Contech venture does not cause further public suffering. In the context of Bangladesh rival business group who did not get a piece of the contract pie can easily hire a daily star style journalist with money and make headlines with corruption charges. How long we will feed TI with fabricated corruption story?

I don’t have any bias against any private company doing the project. But Armed forces has a duty to protect the country and not turning it to a money making machine. That’s where my (and many others) concern.

I say move this project fast but do it in a way that public benefits yet no fabricated story or made up cost come back to haunt us.

[amar11372]

Thanks for the detail info snoq. By the way even though Sena Kallyan Songstha and Trust Bank are involved and they are both own by the Army, I don't believe this will have a similar fate as Jatrabari flyover project. Since these companies is not owned by a single person like the company that was building the Jatrabari flyover project. Even if a BNP/AL govt comes to power in the future, I dont believe they will purposefully stop the work since Sena Kallyan Songstha is a welfare trust company for the ex-servicemen of our country.