The vision for urban transport in Dhaka is ‘it achieves a sustainable social and economic growth, ensures social equity, and ensures a healthy and secure urban environment.’
Dhaka Urban Transport Development Study (2010)
Background
In 2005 the government of Bangladesh formulated a Strategic Transportation Plan (STP) in cooperation with the World Bank, and in 2010 followed this with the Dhaka Urban Transport Development Study.
The Study further recommended the implementation of pedestrian facilities such sidewalks, paths, and trails, and proposed rickshaw improvements, such as a programme for the re-licensing of rickshaw owners and operators and a means to improve the skills of the drivers and the quality of the vehicles, rickshaw stands, segregated lanes and route maps. The Study proposed separate lanes and crossings for bicycles, and supporting local industries for manufacturing bicycle to make them affordable.
The Dhaka Integrated Transportation Study (DITS) strongly supported the use of the bicycle as an alternative to motorized travel and as a replacement of the rickshaw. In this context, the recommendations were the:
- Expansion of credit schemes for bicycle purchasing
- Promotion of bicycle use among students through bank credit or grants
- Strengthening NGOs working in the urban sector to encourage bicycle use (Tiwari et al, 2008).
Our project respondents are concerned, however, that Bangladesh as yet has no formal or official NMT policy commitments, and that the outcomes of the STP, above, have under the guise of ‘improvements’ at times resulted in the banning of NMT vehicles from some of the main corridors.
