Subway project ‘unrealistic and ambitious’: BIP

The Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP) considers the initiative taken by the government to build a subway (underground railway) in and around Dhaka as "unrealistic and ambitious".

This organisation of urbanists said that the construction and maintenance costs are very high and the subway is not compatible with the reality of Bangladesh, reads a press release.

Adil Muhammad Khan, general secretary of the organisation, read out a written statement at an online press conference organised by the BIP on Thursday on contemporary planning and development management.

In a written statement, it was said that the bridge department is implementing a project worth Tk318 crore to assess the feasibility of constructing a subway in Dhaka and its environs and to prepare a preliminary design of the route.

Construction of every 30 km of the subway can cost up to $8 billion or Tk68,000 crore.

According to the press conference, the Strategic Transport Plan (STP) formulated in 2005 and the revised STP (RSTP) in 2016 have recommendations for the construction of five metro rails and two BRTs (Bus Rapid Transit).

In the previous two master plans, it was suggested that unplanned cities like Dhaka were not suitable for the subway network. There is no direction for a mega project like the subway in the transport plan and the detailed area plan of Dhaka city.

Discussions with the Capital Development Authority and the Dhaka Transport Coordinating Authority are required before formulating any plan for the communication system of Dhaka city. But the views of these two organisations on the Dhaka subway project did not prevail, the BIP said.

According to the BIP, the transport plan focused on bus-based public transport and the development of urban communications. Implementation of BRT is relatively affordable. But without giving priority to BRT, very expensive projects like an elevated expressway, metro rail are being given priority. The simple solution of introducing a few thousands of modern buses in Dhaka city has not been implemented in the last 15 years.

Metro rail and subway are similar types of communication infrastructure. Subways are usually built underground. All the latest technology is used in construction. Naturally, the construction cost is much higher.

The construction of the subway in Singapore has recently cost $493 million per kilometre. In Hong Kong, the cost per kilometre was $586 million. Globally, subway construction is very expensive and the estimated cost at the beginning of the project can be greatly increased during implementation. As a result, many countries and cities are moving away from such expensive projects.