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          How pleasant it is to hear that the capital city is going to have a modern transport and communication systems very soon. The government has, of late, come up with a 'pragmatic' plan for implementation to ease traffic congestion on the city streets for the greater benefit of the city dwellers.
Communications Minister Nazmul Huda, dwelling on the strategic transport plan at a recent workshop, said that a rapid improvement in the city's communication system was now an urgent matter since as many as 12 million people were living in the capital city. According to the trend, the number will almost be double after 20 years.
The grim reality is this that the capital city did not grow up suiting to a long-term plan. Experts did not envision what would happen to the city's population and infrastructure after a period of 100 years. They had prepared a short-term plan, envisioning a sizeable growth within a period of 20 years. As such, roads are narrow, lanes and by-lanes are narrower. Buildings and commercial complexes had no adequate parking space.
Lately, the situation has gradually changed with the adoption of a comprehensive city development plan by the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkya (RAJUK).
The city is expanding fast to the South, North and to the East. Narayanganj is coming under the ambit of the capital city while Savar is on the brink of city's take-over. Beyond Uttara and Bashundhara city, Ashulia is now going to the hub of city's affluent residents to build their village homes! With the commissioning of Purbachal outlets, a huge area will come under city's network.
Are the citizens getting bare minimum facilities? There is, however, no direct answer to that question. There are some areas where all basic facilities are available thanks to the better work of the service providers. But thickly populated areas are being deprived of such facilities. Water supply is not adequate over there, maybe gas pressure is low and power supply erratic. The 'have-nots' are, however, the worst suffers as they are frequently deprived of the bare minimum facilities.
Commuting is by far the most nagging issue the citizens confront everyday. Bus, minibuses, CNG babies and taxis are not adequate as compared to the actual needs. Huge lines in front of the bus stoppages point to that precarious situation. The government has done a commendable job by withdrawing four-stroke wheelers, replacing them with three-stroke engines that run CNG baby taxis. Quite a big number of CNG-run taxicabs have been brought in. Yet the citizens are failing to get benefit of these facilities because of their inadequacies.
The government is now con templating introduction of a multi-mode transport system to make communications easy and safe for the citizens. Combining the land, river and air routes, the system is expected to be introduced with modern facilities. To this end, the communications ministry had undertaken 174 projects with an allocation of over Tk 33.19 billion for the current fiscal year. Of the total amount, Tk 22.68 billion have been utilised to until May last.
Ministry sources said the feasibility study for establishing a monorail and a circular road around Dhaka city would start in the next financial year. Once implemented, this rail and circular road would help ease city's traffic jams to a considerable extent. The ministry is thinking of introducing a magnetic train service between Dhaka and port city of Chittagong.
The much-awaited launching of the Mohakhali and Khilgaon flyovers is still to come. The authorities are changing dates after dates. Of late, communications minister has come up with an announcement that the Mohakhali flyover would be opened to traffic in the first week of October. Nearly 95 per cent of the construction work of the 1.12 kilometre Mohakhali flyover has already been completed and the rest of the work is expected to be finished by the first week of October next. With the financial support of the World Bank, the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) is implementing the project at a cost of nearly Tk. 1.35 billion under the Dhaka Urban Transport Project.
The fate of the other flyover is yet to be known. The implementing authority - the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) - is yet to announce a firm date of opening. It is not known how pre-dominantly a rural road and growth centres builder could be entrusted with the task of constructing such a huge flyover. Is LGED more efficient than RHD? Coordination between the ministries of communication and the local government in building such a flyover seems be a determining factor that should be responsible for its anticipated delay.
After commissioning of the flyovers, experts fear that traffic congestion is likely to occur at the exit points where roads are still narrow and unlikely to bear the load of a huge traffic volume. Alternative ways are being considered to get relief from impending congestion. The 'city fathers' have not yet thought of underground metro rail. Kolkata has already launched metro rail successfully. If Kolkata could make it, why not Dhaka - a city of 12 millions! Finance minister described the railway as the thrust sector. For modernisation of the country's ailing railway, the ministry has chalked out a massive renovation project, including development of railway stations and the signalling system.
It's good news that the capital city is going to have a facelift under a special beautification programme ahead of the next SAARC summit. The programme will be implemented with joint participation and efforts of the public and private organisations and agencies. New kind of automatic signalling system has already been launched in the city.
According to the decision, the city's beauty will substantially enhanced by planting saplings on medians of various streets, street islands and footpaths and nursing them by distributing jobs to respective institutions and organisations.
The Dhaka Transport Coordination Board (DTCB) will make all road-medians suitable for the plantation by July 15 while the institutions concerned will complete their assigned jobs by July 31. The Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) will cover the mud part of all sidewalks by August 31.
The DCC will provide necessary designs to the institutions and organisations concerned on beautification of road-medians through plantation and the organisations concerned will carry out plantation and maintenance activities at their own initiatives.
If all preparations go in right direction, city's beautification programme is expected to take a concrete shape. But nevertheless, that has to be sustained on a pro-active basis. Sincere efforts from all concerned should be there to sustain such tempted dream of the citizenry.