C T Online Desk: Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) Mayor Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh said in December last year that the construction work of Dhaka City Inter-District Bus Terminal in Narayanganj’s Kanchpur will be completed by the middle of this year.
The DSCC mayor hoped that the opening of the terminal would improve the quality of passenger services and reduce traffic congestion in the capital and its surrounding areas.
However, the construction of the terminal that is supposed to accommodate buses plying the routes leading to Chattogram and Sylhet is nowhere near completion. As a result, those buses are still entering the heart of the city and creating traffic congestion in the capital.
According to the electronic procurement website of the government, DSCC awarded a tender to Khokan Construction & Engineering Ltd on 19 July last year for developing around 12.5 acres of lowland in Kanchpur for a bus terminal at Tk25.08 crore. The work was supposed to end on 30 June this year.
DSCC also awarded Aman City Builders Limited the contract for the development boundary wall of Kanchpur Bus Terminal at Tk6.94 crore on 16 April this year. The deadline for that project is 30 December this year.
During a recent visit to the site for the proposed bus terminal, it was found that filling the lowland with sand is yet to be completed. A dredger was seen dumping sand in a corner of the big marshy land.
Besides, no activities related to constructing the boundary wall, ticket counters, or any other necessary infrastructure for a bus terminal were visible on the site.
On 30 July, talking to the Daily Sun, DSCC Superintendent Engineer (Traffic Engineering Circle) Rajib Khadem said they may change their plan of letting buses use the proposed terminal soon.
Rajib said, “We are about to complete the land development work. If buses are allowed to enter the site and start operation, it will be very difficult to do development work on other infrastructure. Our consultants are working on the design of the terminal. We cannot do the development work following the design.”
He also said DSCC extended the capacity of Saidabad Bus terminal, which can now accommodate buses of Chattogram and Sylhet as long as the construction of Kanchpur terminal is not completed.
If DSCC changes its decision and decides to start the Kanchpur bus terminal’s operation after construction of all necessary infrastructures, then it will take several years as a development project proposal for it is yet to be readied, said sources.
City dwellers have been experiencing severe traffic jams as the inter-district buses are still plying the roads in Dhaka. The situation worsened recently as major parts of roads at Jamuna Future Park and Malibagh areas were made off-limits for traffic due to development work.
Prof Hadiuzzaman, a public transport expert, told the Daily Sun that barring the movement of inter-district buses in Dhaka is a demand of time but the city authorities have to ensure that passengers have easy modes of transport to reach Kanchpur and the new bus terminal has all the necessary facilities.
“Making a terminal for outbound buses at the entry point of the city is a good decision because movement of inter-district buses and their counters are creating trouble for traffic movement in Dhaka. Besides, development work in different points of city thoroughfares is aggravating it. Taking the inter-district bus terminal and counters outside Dhaka is now a crying need,” said Prof Hadiuzzaman, a former director of Accident Research Institute at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.
