The Dhaka metro rail is still an ongoing project, with the first line—MRT-6—almost complete and several others under construction. Yet, few would shy away from calling it a tremendous success already. It works, people love it, and all that’s required now is to maintain the quality of service and keep up with demand.
Unless, of course, as citizens of one of the most densely populated metropolises in the world, we aspire to a better quality of life.
The metro rail network, which authorities say will be complete by 2030, will span the entire city of Dhaka. With 103 stations, the expectation is that a complete network will make the metro rail service accessible to everyone. While 103 is quite a large number, Dhaka is an incredibly populated city, and getting one to two crore—depending on where you draw the city boundaries—Dhakaites from their homes to these stations and back will remain a challenge.
If Dhaka is to become a city with reliable public transport—and it must if it wants to stop being one of the least liveable places in the world—the government and city authorities need to look at the complete picture and work on efficient ways for people to commute. Metro rail is only one part of the puzzle; rationalising bus lines and making bus services passenger-friendly has to be the next step.
Since the metro rail has been operating full time, there have been reports that bus operators are starting to lose passengers. But that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. In Dhaka, one look at the roads tells us that not enough people use public transport, as roads are inundated with a sea of private vehicles, mainly cars.
Within a functional public transport system, buses can exist parallelly with metro lines, operating cheaper, slower services with more stops. This serves the dual purpose of offering alternative modes of transportation between two destinations, as well as becoming a medium of last mile delivery for passengers, doing the job of collecting commuters from near their homes and commercial destinations and putting them on a metro rail.
