Dhaka metro project may attract higher budgetary allocation
23 May 2014The next budget is set to see an allocation of BDT 4bn for the Dhaka metro rail project, an approved metro rail system to be constructed in Dhaka, the capital and largest city of Bangladesh.
Officials in Dhaka said 23 May that the allocation would be more than double the allocation made in the current fiscal year (1 July 2013 to 30 June 2014).
The Dhaka Mass Rapid Transport Project (DMRT) received BDT 1.75bn in the fiscal year (FY) 2013-14, which they said had been spent mainly for consultancy job and land acquisition.
A significant portion of the budget allocation would be spent to acquire land for depot at Uttara, said officials.
Though the Capital Development Authority of Banglagladesh (Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakhya, also known as RAJUK) is yet to hand over its land from the Uttara 3rd phase project area for the MRT depot, the officials said they kept a sizeable portion of the budget allocation to pay the state-owned developer to acquire land.
The DMRT project has already paid BDT 850M to RAJUK from the current fiscal year against acquisition of 14 acres of land.
The government high-ups including the cabinet and the first track project task force directed the RAJUK to hand over a total of 54 acres of land from its Uttara 3rd phase project area for the MRT project.
The authority, however, handed over 14 acres of land from the area last year but refrained from handing over the rest of the land.
When asked about any fund allocated for the MRT company, the officials said its expenses would be met from the fund.
The government has undertaken the USD 2.8bn DMRT project to build the 20.5km metro railway between Uttara and Motijheel by 2024.
Implementation of the fastest mode of transport is likely to start in 2016 after completion of ground work. The work includes a detailed design, land acquisition and resettlement.The government has already appointed a consortium of foreign firms to carry out the detailed design of the MRT.
The first ever cent partly government-owned MRT company was formed last year to implement, operate and maintain the DMRT project, which has been long called for to solve the extreme amount of traffic jams and congestion that occur throughout the entire city on a daily basis.
