Concept and use of dual-use cars in reducing traffic congestion in Dhaka city of Bangladesh

(Part – ONE )
ABSTRACT :
The narrow and mostly unplanned roads of Dhaka city have generated a special type of transport problem. Huge number of private cars jam the roads at the pick hours and their number is increasing at the rate of about 130 cars per day. In solving this problems various experts suggested  solutions like, (a) Metro or underground rail, (b) Monorail, (c) Elevated expressway, (d) Fly over, (e) Increase of large-bodied public transport, (f) Removal of old cars, (g) Imposing restriction on car ownership, (h) Introducing school bus, (i)  Decentralization  etc. A careful analysis may reveal that
01.  Proposal (a), (b) and (c) are extremely costly and do not have any quality to solve the present problem, which is jamming due to cars.
02.  Proposal (d) may solve the problem of jam at some locations by transferring the same to another location. However, it does not solve jamming of roads. Also in Dhaka there is scarcity of suitable land to construct flyovers.
03.  Proposal (e) cannot reduce the number of cars, but can only increase the total number of vehicles.
04.  Proposal (f) and (g) are absurd and fruitless talks.
05.  Proposal (i) can help in reducing jam near the schools and can contribute nothing more.
06.  Proposal (i) is an excellent solution for solving car-jamming. But those having knowledge about Bangladesh and the way its government work know well that the government would not be able to materialize it.

In this paper two other inexpensive proposals have been discussed. These are :   (j)  Dwellers-Participation based Administrative Planning policy (DPAP)  and (k) Dual-use car. None of these has still been tried anywhere in the world, even though their implementations are not at all difficult. In this paper these above issues have been discussed with some details of the proposal for introducing Dual use car. The author is confident, if introduced the Dual-use cars will be able to solve the specialized type of transport problem of Dhaka city.

INTRODUCTION :
Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh has got numerous problems. However, the most irritating one of these is the ever increasing travel-time due to jamming of roads by vehicles. Quite often the vehicles need to wait for half an hour or more in one jam. If a person faces five or six such jams, then he would have to waste extremely valuable three additional hours per trip. The government has taken some measures, mostly following the knowledge and examples from the developed countries. Even though some of those acted well at the initial stage, the situation turned the same after a few months. At present the government is thinking of taking some extremely costly projects.  

As a scientific phenomenon transportation is related not only with engineering aspects of road (width, finishing, curvature, junction etc) and vehicle (size, permissible velocity, maneuverability etc.), but also with social aspects like people’s attitude, their physical fitness, patience,  expectation etc. and country’s economic reality and capability to spend. Since the non-physical contexts in Bangladesh are quite different from those of the developed countries most, if not all, of their solutions do not work efficiently in this land. In such a context one fine suggestion may be to devise out the solution based on local condition. In this paper we shall endeavor to present such a proposal, of course in the form of a concept, that has not yet been tried anywhere in this world.

INVESTIGATING THE EFFICIENCY OF ROAD AND TRAFFIC JAM  :
EFFICIENCY OF ROAD IN TRANSPORTING PASSENGERS :  The efficiency of any road in transporting passengers depends upon : (i) Unit space by the passenger and (ii) Practical speed of the vehicle.  Naturally efficiency increases with lessening of unit space and increase in vehicular speed.

(i). UNIT SPACE required by the passenger : This is given by the total space occupied by any vehicle divided by the number of people accommodated within it. Naturally unit space is maximum for private cars and minimum for the double-decker bus. It is obvious that the less will be the “unit space” the more will be the efficiency and vice versa.

PERMISSIBLE SPEED : It is the maximum and minimum speed prescribed by the concerned authorities for various vehicles. The minimum speed is usually imposed on vehicles running in the high speed lane.

(ii) PRACTICAL SPEED :  Whatever might be the permissible speed of a vehicle, in practice it depends upon many local factors. On one hand it depends upon the engineering factors like smoothness, straightness and width of road, frequency of branch roads, demarcation of lanes, engineering design of junctions etc. On the other, the practical speed of vehicle depends upon factors like, plying of slow moving vehicles (like rickshaw, rickshaw-van etc.), passengers trying to cross roads, number of vehicles running at any particular instant etc. In Dhaka city, efficiency of roads has been reduced severely due to (i) slow moving vehicles and (ii) total number of vehicles running at a time. These two are also the major causes of traffic jam.

REMOVAL OF RICKSHAW : In the past the authorities on several occasions declared the elimination of rickshaws on the assumption that the same would help in increasing the speed of the mechanized vehicles. Since rickshaw is the cheapest and easiest mode of transport of the poor and middle income people, the authorities endeavor did not come out successful. They however, have imposed ban on the plying of rickshaw on some major roads, usually known as VIP roads. The result however, was even worse because absence of rickshaw encouraged more cars to use these roads thus creating severe car-jam.

SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS : 
In Bangladesh not all the projects are taken for the benefit of the people. Many a times those are taken to fulfill personal gains of the concerned people and financial need of the ruling parties. While this is one aspect of the root cause of many problems, the other aspect is the holding of responsible posts by less-intelligent people and dishonest people. 

We cite here one good example. During the regime of the previous political government, the petrol driven auto-rickshaws, with their small and compact bodies were serving the need of transportation of the middle income people quite satisfactorily. The BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) government banned those in Dhaka city for alleged pollution and strangely allowed those in other cities of the country. The vacuum due to their absence was later filled by importing CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) auto-rickshaws. The price of these vehicles was heavily increased in order to take care for ‘party-fund’. Also the vehicles were distributed mostly among the party-workers. Because of their less number, it created severe transport crisis that led to exorbitant increase of fare. Thus it is seen that what the government did in program was in fact benefitting their party and people, with no concern for the city or the citizens.

We have already mentioned that in Bangladesh many crises take place because in some cases less-intelligent people are given responsible positions. We cite one example to prove it. Even a child knows that in any city the walkways or foot-paths are, by far the most important mode of transportation. In case of hazard (like earthquake) or emergency, or when no vehicle is available, foot-paths act as the last and only resort. Naturally, in all the cities of the world the footpaths are maintained clean and obstruction-free. In Dhaka city, “guardians’ waiting room” has been constructed right on the footpath in front of a girls’ school, thus creating pains to millions of pedestrians.  It may be really painful to learn that the person who created this obstruction is the Chief Engineer of Dhaka City Corporation. When we come to learn that a person with such level of intelligence can occupy a position with such great responsibility, we can only feel disheartened. 

After road jam has taken extremely serious turn in Dhaka various organizations and experts have put forward some suggestions for the purpose of solving transportation problem and to eradicate traffic jam. We mention here the most discussed proposals.
(a) Metro or underground rail
(b) Monorail
(c) Elevated expressway  
(d) Fly over 
(e) Increase of large-bodied public transport  
(f) Removal of old cars 
(g) Imposing restriction on car ownership
(h) Introducing school bus  
(i)  Decentralization    

 (END OF PART ONE )
PROF. BIJON B. SARMA. Dean, Faculty of Architecture and Planning. Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology, Dhaka.

CONCEPT AND USE OF DUAL-USE CARS IN REDUCING TRAFFIC CONGESTION IN DHAKA CITY OF BANGLADESH

Prof Bijon B. Sarma
(Part – TWO )

BRIEF DISCUSSION OF THE PROPOSALS :
We shall briefly narrate each of the above suggestions with their potentialities and drawbacks in general. The prime cause of Dhaka city’s ongoing transportation problem has already been mentioned as “excessive number of cars”, plying on roads. Naturally, in discussing various suggestions we shall try to find out those are able to take care of this special problem.    

(a) METRO OR UNDERGROUND TRAIN :  In the democratic republic of Bangladesh there is no transparent and well spelt means of collecting fund for continuing activities of the political parties. Commission from large projects is one easy source of this fund. Many a times large and hazardous projects are taken for this purpose only. The proposal for Metro or underground train seems to be one such project. In Bangladesh this project is highly unsuitable because of the following major reasons : (i) Dhaka city is not still that large to be connected with underground rail line. (ii) It is too uneconomic for a poor country with medium level technology like Bangladesh. (iii) Even though it may ease people’s transportation, it would no way solve the problem of jamming of cars, because there is little possibility that the car owners would abandon their cars for the purpose of travelling by metro.  (iv) It may turn to death-trap in times of hazards like flood and earthquake.  Even a mediocre boy could deduce that metro or underground train can in no way reduce the number of cars.  
 
(b) MONORAIL :  What has been said in case of Metro is equally true in case of Mono-rail. In addition, it is extremely dangerous in earth-quake prone countries and countries with high underground water table.  And finally, even though monorail can serve as a good means of transport for low to medium income people, it does not have the quality to reduce the number of cars plying on roads.  

(c) ELEVATED EXPRESSWAY :  This one also is type of proposal usually made for fulfilling vested interest.  It is true that expressway in general creates scope for easy movement of many cars. This fact may lead some people to think that it would solve our traffic problem. The truth is just the reverse. As soon as this scope would be made open, many new cars would be added to the present contingent. Whatever easy may be the movement of cars in elevated expressways, all cars would have to come down at one time for reaching the destination, maintenance or avoid hazard. This leads to creation of worst type of road-jam and slowing of speed. Lagos city of Nigeria may be cited as best example of this phenomenon. Also, the narrow roads of Dhaka city are not suitable for implementing this program.  Once again we are sorry to mention that elevated expressway would in no way reduce the number of cars, but help to increase the same with consequential problems in the ground level.  

(d) FLY OVER :  Flyovers at times become essential in solving some traffic problems. Flyover is capable of transferring the traffic jam of any location to a different location. If the new place is not that busy, it acts well. Flyovers can ease the movement of cars at junctions, but it can in no way reduce the number of cars or the consequential problem of jam. Also mass construction of flyovers may not be feasible in Dhaka due to economic reason and scarcity of land in the congested built-up city.

(e) INCREASE OF LARGE-BODIED PUBLIC TRANSPORT :  It has already been mentioned that the passenger-carrying capacity of a road increases with the use of both larger-body and higher-speed vehicles. In Dhaka city increasing the number of large bodied vehicles may ensure movement of more people at less cost, but this one in no way would solve the problem of jamming. On the other hand it would help to increase the same. Whatever comfortable a bus may be, the car owners with the privileges of starting right from the house to end up just at another door step would not like to send away their cars, even if enough of bus services are made available.

(f) REMOVAL OF OLD CARS : Eliminating very old and not-roadworthy cars is the usual procedure followed in any city. However, the proposal of “eliminating all cars older than a certain period” in order to reduce the number of cars is a wrong suggestion and should not be proposed by any intelligent person.  Those who would be asked to abandon their old cars would immediately replace those by new ones. Thus such a proposal can only create situation for importing of more cars at the expense of scarce foreign currency. Those who cite the example that, some countries compel their car owners to discard those after 5 years or so, forget that those are the car-manufacturing countries whose economy considerably balances itself on such process of elimination.  In a poor country like Bangladesh cars should be kept in running so long it is safe for itself and for others.
 
(g) IMPOSING RESTRICTION ON CAR OWNERSHIP :   In a democratic country there cannot be any rule to prohibit the citizens from owning cars. As a matter of fact this one can be considered as “wishful thought” and not at all a suggestion.

(h) INTRODUCING SCHOOL BUS :  This measure may eliminate concentration of cars near the schools at pick hours and facilitate movement of the children from poor and mid-income families. But it is quite doubtful if it would help in lessening the number of cars. 

(i) DECENTRALIZATION  :   It is an excellent solution which is capable of solving not only the traffic or transportation problem, but also of scarcity of utilities  (i.e. water, electricity, gas etc.) and pollution. In the process of decentralization some of the important government ministries, establishments, industries, public facilities etc. can be shifted outside the periphery of Dhaka and even to distant cities. Even though this excellent solution is cent percent fruitful, its implementation in our context is equally doubtful. In our country the bureaucracy and the political leaders directly and indirectly work for increasing the values of their properties, income from their business and investment etc. in the capital city. The more is the concentration of people, the more will be their gains. In such a context it seems nearly impossible that our bureaucrats and leaders would agree to do anything that might go against their interests. In addition, this proposal is quite slow and costly in implementation.

After discussing the commonly discussed suggestions we shall cite here two more suggestions, which probably have not been discussed earlier. These are : (01) Dwellers-Participation based Administrative Planning policy (DPAP)  and (02) Dual-use car.  These two are being discussed here. 

(01) DWELLERS-PARTICIPATION BASED ADMINISTRATIVE PLANNING POLICY (DPAP) :  This is a new concept and has recently been published in a number of websites including Social Science Research Network referred below.
The salient features of this proposal are the following :
(a)  The city shall be divided into a number of independent or semi-independent units physically marked by broad roads. The length and breadth of the unit shall be 1.5 km to 2.00 km. in order to keep pace with peoples’ walking limit. In each such unit the dwellers will be consulted to opine what type services and commodities they lack and which ones are surplus.

(b)  Administrative measures will then be taken for making these units “self-sufficient” with the facilities, amenities and services as proposed by the dwellers. These may be : (i) Educational institutions (Children's school, High School etc.).   (ii) Commodities (Vegetables-rice-meat shop complex, Grocery, Stationary, Cloth shop etc.), (iii.) Financial institution (Bank, ATM machine etc.),  (iv) Healthcare and emergency (General physician, Dentist, Ophthalmologist, Ear Nose Throat specialist, Child specialist, Gymnasium etc.), (v) Maintenance (Repairing shops for domestic appliances and gadgets), (vi) Professionals (Lawyer), (vii) Hostels (independently for male and female students), (viii) Dormitory (independently for working men and women), (ix) Religious facilities (prayer house), (x) Community centre etc.

(c)  Because of the democratic nature of the country, the authorities cannot interfere in what type of amenities or services the businessmen would deal in.  It is natural that the businessmen would look for the type of business they find profitable, even if those create concentration of services at one place and scarcity at another. In such a situation the authority would have to proceed indirectly.

(d)  Since all of the above facilities will not be available in any unit, or excess number of the same will be available in some, (like existence of excessive number of schools in Dhanmondi R.A.), the urban authority would accept a policy of sanctioning licenses at usual rate only to fixed number of such service and facility providers. Those beyond this list would have to pay tax at much higher rate. In order to avoid monopoly the minimum number of each facility will be 2 and maximum as desired by the dwellers. Definitely their number would depend upon location also. If this policy is introduced, people’s movement in search of the essential facilities at distances and by using vehicles will be reduced, because they would find those within walking distance. Also removal of concentration of some facilities at some particular points would help to ease traffic congestion.

Even though there is no way to be sure if the above proposal would be able to reduce the number of cars in the city, but definitely it would reduce the frequency of their movement. One positive aspect of this proposal is, it involves no or negligible expenditure on the part of the urban authority.
 
 (j) DUAL-USE CAR :  At present saloon-body cars are used for two different purposes : (01) Private car and (02) Hired taxi. In such a situation “Dual-use cars” will be those which may be used in both ways with respect to time. Thus these may be of two types : (a) Morning Dual-use Car (say, MDC) and (02) Evening Dual-use Car (EDC).  There will be indication of MDC or EDC in the license plates.

(END OF PART TWO )
PROF. BIJON B. SARMA. Dean, Faculty of Architecture and Planning. Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology, Dhaka.

CONCEPT AND USE OF DUAL-USE CARS IN REDUCING TRAFFIC CONGESTION IN DHAKA CITY OF BANGLADESH

Prof Bijon B. Sarma
(Part – THREE )

WHAT THE AUTHORITIES WOULD HAVE TO DO FOR INTRODUCING DUAL-USE CARS : 
(a)  The authorities would issue licenses for MDC and EDC’s at a rate in between those of full-fledged taxi and private cars.
(b)  Both MDC and EDC will be privately owned cars which will be allowed to run as taxi in the morning (in case of MDC) and as owned car in the evening. The same will be the reverse in case of EDC. The timing may be early 5.00A.M. to 1.00 P.M. (8 hours) and 2.00 P.M. to 10.00 P.M. (8 hours), where the period 1.00 P.M. to 2.00 P.M. shall be common transition time for both.
(c)    The owners would be asked to use a hood on top and a taxi-fare meter. The on-light inside the hood shall indicate its availability as taxi. 
(d)     The authority would arrange taxi-stands at all suitable locations for these vehicles.

Now we shall discuss the advantages and disadvantages of various concerned parties due to introduction of Dual-use cars.

(i) Owners : The owners of DC’s would enjoy the movement-benefit in the city for half day and some financial benefit for the remaining period. This would create some income from it and at the same time, reduce the continual life of vehicle, or in other words, increase the rate of depreciation.  After calculating both internal rate of return and depreciation, it would be economical for the owner. 

(ii) Passengers : At present the passengers cannot avail taxi services because (01) their number is too less and (02) their physical conditions are extremely pathetic. Introduction of DC’s would solve both the problems. Earning from the DC’s depends upon the rate of fare fixed by the government. However, from rough calculation it may be found out that these cars can maintain profitably at less fare than the taxis.  

(iii) Drivers : The drivers who at present drive hired taxi endeavors to earn “the most” at the cost of worst use of the vehicle. That is why most of the taxis turn so dilapidated after several years. Even the driver owning a taxi need to try for optimum earning, because there is no guarantee that he would have handsome earning in the dull season. If DC’s are introduced many of the drivers would work as owner’s driver at one time and as taxi-driver at the other. The job under the owner would give him a guaranteed salary, such that he would not have to be desperate for earning while he works as taxi driver.   

(iv) Road efficiency : Even if the number of cars do not decrease after the introduction of the DC’s, the passenger carrying capacity of the road will be increased because in about 50% cases the cars would carry more passengers.

(v) Non-resident affluent men : At present affluent persons living in distant cities usually visit Dhaka with their cars for obvious reasons and these cars act as additional load in the city roads. Availability of taxi in the city may discourage them to bring their cars. 

(vi) It is the responsibility of the authority to facilitate the journey of the local people who can afford taxi, and also those of the visitors from outside the city and the country. In Dhaka city the authorities can do the same by introducing more taxi-cabs. If this is done, the already congested roads will be further jammed due to the added vehicles.  Also importing such cabs may be too unjustified for a poor country that still considerably depends upon its non-resident wage-earner sons for foreign currency. The administrative decision for introducing Dual-use cars can increase the number of available taxis by manifold without spending a single dollar.

Quite often the authorities express their dismay over addition of average 130 new cars every day. They also think of various ways to stop it. Introduction of more bus, school bus, mono-rail, elevated road, metro etc. are some of their suggestions. Any person with little intelligence would understand that none of these would be able to reduce the number of cars, simply because none of these are comparable to journey in private cars. The mode of journey nearest to it is the journey by comfortable taxis. The car owners may feel less interested to purchase cars only if suitable alternate mode is available at less cost. Fortunately Dual-use car can fulfill their need.
 
COMPARATIVE DISCUSSION OF THE PROPOSALS :
The relative financial involvement including foreign currency, period after which result can be expected, status during hazards, how far effective in lessening no. or movement of cars and special characteristics of the 11 proposed solutions shown above have been shown in Tabular form below :

PROPOSALS  FINANCIAL INVOLVEMENT INCLUDING FOREIGN CURRENCY PERIOD AFTER WHICH RESULT CAN BE EXPECTED  STATUS DURING HAZARDS HOW FAR EFFECTIVE IN LESSENING NO. OR MOVEMENT OF CARS.   SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS
(i). Metro or underground train i.   Need huge local and foreign currencies.
ii.  Need donors.
iii. Need foreign experts.
iv. Need huge imported components.   May need 2 / 3 years to finalize decision and get fund. Then may need 7/8 years for implementation.  

i. Extremely hazardous during flood, earthquake, heavy rain etc.

ii. People would have to suffer worst type of suffering during construction that would continue for years. No possibility of reducing the no. of cars. i. Dhaka city’s size, road width and orientation, soil condition etc. are not suitable for these projects.

ii. Such projects may highly fulfill the expectations of the bureaucrats and political workers.

iii. External finance increases country’s foreign loan. If decision is taken to recover from the users, peoples’ journey will be costlier.
(ii). Monorail    Would increase no. of cars, resulting in severe jam in the ground level. 
(iii). Elevated expressway    i.   Need huge local and foreign currencies.
ii.  Need donors.
iii. Need foreign experts.    No possibility of reducing the no. of cars.  
(iv). Fly over   Quite high.  2 / 3 years. Hazardous during earthquake. No affect on no. of cars. May ease movement. Creates hazardous concrete jungle in the city.
(v). Increase of large-bodied public transport  
 High. Needs imported vehicles. Less then 1 year.  ----------------------  No possibility of reducing cars. Rather it would increase the total no. of vehicles. Bus is not the alternative for the car owners.
(vi). Removal of old cars.   No cost in removal. But then people would buy new cars.   ------------- ------------------- No possibility of reducing no. of cars. Would create scope for importing cars. Absurd proposal.
(vii). Imposing restriction on car ownership
 No cost. -------------- ---------------- -------------- Absurd proposal Not possible in a democratic country.
(viii). Introducing school bus    Investment is not much.  Less than 1 year. ---------------- May reduce use of cars. But reduction in their number is doubtful. May stop present congestion near some schools.
(ix) Decentralization    Tremendous local investment. May be 1 year to finalize decision. Then may be 7/8 years or never for implementation. Every possibility of being nullified by other measures. --------------------- Definitely would reduce number of cars.  Very fruitful and extremely doubtful solution.
(01) Dwellers-participation based administrative planning policy (DPAP)    Negligible cost. May be six months or less.  ----------------------- Possibility of reducing the number of cars.  New venture. Have not been tried anywhere in the world. Most suitable for countries with limited resources. 
(02). Dual-use car. Negligible cost. May be six months or less. ------------------------ Possibility of reducing the number of cars New venture. Have not been tried anywhere. Most suitable for countries with limited resources. 
 
CONCLUSION :  
The story of Dhaka city’s transport problem is now well-known all over the world. Even though it is a city where no more than 45 minutes may be needed to move from one end to the other, quite often the office-goers need 2 to 3 hours in each trip. It happens due to road jam, which is mostly caused due to excessive number of private cars. The authorities in charge of arranging and maintaining urban roads and transportation do not seem to have been enough of honest and intelligent people. There are valid reasons to opine like this.

Even a school boy knows that in any city foot-path is the most important mode of movement. In time of hazards when there may be no vehicle or no other mode of transport, footpaths exist as the last resort. Naturally, every where in the world the authorities endeavor their best to make the footpaths obstruction free. In Dhaka city, the authorities have not only allowed the owners to use footpath in their private use like car parking, making sloped ramps, erecting decorated name plates etc., some of them have even constructed guardian’s waiting place right on the footpath.

It is known to all that in order to gain speed the vehicles need long uninterrupted roads, where the number of right-turns (right or left used here applied in case of Dhaka city) are kept minimum. In doing so, the dividing island turns nearly continuous. When such islands run continuously in long roads, the passers-bye suffer from the problem in crossing. So, foot over-bridge need to be constructed at suitable locations. In Dhaka the authorities have failed to show their prudence in constructing foot over bridge. In the junction of roads, cars on one lane need to remain in stop-mood, such that those at right angles may pass through. The time required for the cars in stop-mood is sufficient enough for the passers bye to cross the lane through zebra crossing. Pedestrians are the king of the road. Naturally such crossing makes them to feel that the city belongs to them and make their journey easy. Strangely, the Dhaka city authorities have constructed foot over bridges at the junctions. This may be cited as good example of their lack of intelligence and of wastage of money. Foot over bridges need to be constructed where those are essential, like long uninterrupted roads mentioned above, near school, busy market, hospital etc.

The city authorities’ imprudence may also be seen in the construction of the foot over bridge, where the steps are dissimilar, standardized “tread and riser” have not been maintained and maintenance is extremely poor.  In some bridge there is no sun rain protection and in some, the two sides have been blocked by using hoardings and signboards.

Those who fail to perform these simple duties, however, are always found interested in new and large projects, and it is not difficult to understand the reason. It is known to all that, since there is no transparent system of collection of fund for political activities in Bangladesh the ruling parties collect those mainly from such projects. Naturally the Ministers who can manage big projects are given extreme honor in the party and also in the bureaucracy. Some of the projects mentioned above and having no good qualities are getting preferences in discussion for unknown reason. All those who are after such projects know that the construction of such a project would need 7 /8 or 10 years, by which time there will be new problems and people would forget to find out how efficiently the costly project benefitted the city or the people. On the other hand, during the time of decision making, finalization of bids, award of contracts, import of materials etc. it may be possible to extract good commission for personal gains and to bear the cost of future elections.

We have seen this game earlier.  We see many of the foot over bridge constructed near the junctions to remain idle, where the people endeavor to cross the roads, (which is natural). It is not difficult that those are the creations of some dishonest and less intelligent people who “made projects in their selfish interests”.

Above we have endeavored to present an unbiased account of various proposals now being discussed in solving the transport problem of the city. We also have discussed their relative cost, efficiency, behavior during hazard etc., all however in the context of Bangladesh. The last two proposals (No. 01 and 02) however, have been developed only in recent months and have not still entered in the arena of discussion. From logic it seems that these may be quite effective in solving Dhaka city’s problem. However,  there is no scope for ‘game of big money’ in these two. We are not sure whether this quality would act as, cause of their attraction or rejection.

As of now, DUAL USE CAR is in use nowhere in the world. A careful analysis would, however, reveal that in this age it is not at all difficult to introduce it. Also from all logic it seems that if introduced it would be able to solve the special type of transport problem of Dhaka city.      

References :
01. February 2010 : Sarma, Bijon B. : Dwellers-Participation Based Administrative Planning Policy' and its Application in the Developing Countries, With Special Reference to Dhaka City of Bangladesh. Social Science Research Network. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1556543.

(END OF PART THREE )
PROF. BIJON B. SARMA. Dean, Faculty of Architecture and Planning. Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology, Dhaka.

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