Ring roads planned to cut tailbacks in Dhaka [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Ring roads planned to cut tailbacks in Dhaka

Local November 12, 2016

The government has taken a plan to build by 2035 three ring roads and eight radial roads in the capital at an estimated cost of Tk 35,335 crore to slash its traffic jams and carbon pollution.
Approved in August, the Revised Strategic Transport Plan for 2015 to 2035 envisages separating intra capital traffic flow from inter district traffic.
Independent urban planners and transport experts described the plan unrealistic saying that construction of the inner and the middle ring roads would require demolition of large number of buildings.
The RSTP envisages construction of a 73 km inner ring road, 108 km middle ring road and 129 km outer ring road.
As all the ring roads would pass through the capital’s flood flow zones the plan envisages setting up of sluice gates to facilitate water flow.
Experts raised doubts about efficacy of the plan with regard to the flood flow zones and said none would expect the government to pay attention to the issue as it turned a blind eye when influential elements grabbed water retention ponds exposing the capital to increased incidence of water stagnation.
The outer ring road has to be built while getting the middle ring road would require construction 48 km of new road and widening of 60 km of existing roads.
The inner ring road envisages construction of 35 km of new roads and widening of 38 km of existing roads. Only four km of the inner road has been constructed from Jatrabari to Gulistan, officials told New Age.
The inner ring road would provide a new route to commuters around the capital, Teramukh-Abdullahpur-Gabtoli-Rayerbazar-Babu Bazar-Sadarghat-Fatullah-Chashara-Signboard-Shimrail-Demra-Eastern Bypass and on the way stretches of it would pass by the Balu River in the east and the Burignga River in the south.
The middle ring road has been planned to create the route, Outpura-Dhaka Bypass-Bhulta-Kanchpur-Jhilmil-Western Bypass.
Planned to run along the capital’s outer periphery the outer ring road would create a new traffic route linking Hemayetpur-Kalakandi-Madanpur-Danga-Bypail-Gazipur.
BUET urban and regional planning professor Sarwar Jahan told New Age that radial roads should be constructed simultaneously with the ring roads to make the plan useful.
He said that the delay in planning made construction of the ring roads almost impossible as so many buildings had been built along the proposed routes.
He said that ring roads running through embankments to be built through flood flow zones were bound cause increased water stagnation.
He said elevated ring roads at the needed stretches could provide the desired solution.
Grabbing of retention ponds, he said, already created serious water logging problems for the capital.
Similar doubts were expressed by BUET’s civil engineering professor and transport expert Md Shamsul Hoque saying construction of the inner and the middle ring roads would prove almost impossible due to so many buildings standing on the way.
Ring roads and radial roads were very important for the distribution of traffic loads of any city, he said.
Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority executive director Md Kaikobad Hossain told New Age that the ring roads and the radial roads would cut down the capital’s traffic jams.
He said sluice gates would be installed on the planned embankments to flush out water.
The previous Strategic Transport Plan taken in 2005 envisaged construction of Dhaka Circular Road by 2025.
Dhaka Circular Road has been renamed Outer Ring Road in the Revised Strategic Transport Plan.
The concept paper of Roads and Highways Department’s Dhaka Circular Route Project envisages construction of a 63km road linking Teramukh with Demra.
The proposed project also envisages construction of a 24km embankment from Demra to Teramukh by BWDB.
RHD would pave the embankment to get the 24km stretch of the circular road.
Kaikobad Hossain said that the southern part of the Outer Ring Road would be constructed well ahead of 2018 when the Padma Bridge would be opened to traffic.
He said that the government wants to make the southern Outer Ring Road available to traffic pouring from the country’s south-western districts using the Padma Bridge.