Re-routing Dhaka metro – how much is being compromised?

As the debate continues about the new metro route in Dhaka and on which side of the old Tejgaon airport the MRT line will finally land, one wonders at the fluid opportunism of the political bickering.

Questions arise whether the line has been moved at the behest of the air force, the current custodian of the airport, who were reportedly concerned about the security risks that an elevated rail system travelling alongside it might raise.

Then there was suggestions that the metro would entail aircraft landing on only half of the runway due to clearance issues on approach from the south end (perhaps aircraft could make the approach from the north end without such a concern?) so there is now talk of the line alongside Rokeya Sharani beside the parliament building.


Suddenly the sanctity of the parliament architecture has been brought up and how the metro rail would compromise on Louis Kahn's design. This despite that fact that there is a mausoleum and other buildings around the site which were definitely not part of the original design.

That the current opposition – the party responsible for the mausoleum in question (it marks the party's founding father's gravesite) – would raise an issue about the sanctity of the architectural design is laughable.

The current administration has been quick to suggest in parliament how the new route would not compromise the design of the parliament complex and that the metro rail can be accommodated along the road that runs on the east side of the building without disrupting the beauty of the complex.

[That anyone in power would be concerned about the sanctity of master plans in a city that has run amok with buildings erected on the strength of cold cash and partisanship, master plan be damned, is ironic!]

Earlier the protests were from the Dhaka University authorities who wanted the lines redrawn so as not to go through the campus (which just happens to be located bang centre of prime land Dhaka city). That debate is now been settled, after all the authorities of the biggest and most prestigious institution in Bangladesh cannot but be an enlightened (if also a mercurial) group.

As I mentioned in a previous post that after 40 years of political bickering and wheeling dealing time is ripe for the country to unite for a common cause rather than still while away in the 'what's in it for me' mindset – and the metro rail, in light of the current traffic gridlock, is one common cause that we all need to get behind.

I am sure that this will get solved eventually, but time is of essence, The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which funded the initial feasibility study, is not waiting on the sidelines to pick up 80 percent of the US$1.7 billion price tag (albeit as a soft loan).

The people's representative have now just sit together and unitedly decide on the 'go ahead.'

The metro rail network, in its urgency, has grown to become bigger than a cheap political trickery. It is the project of the moment and only one of a few steps that could potentially make a real dent in the traffic situation in Dhaka and actually work to ease the congestion on the road.

Perhaps we should keep our fingers crossed that the solution to get things moving at last does not get trapped in a stalemate of its own.

Do you think the metro system could help ease the traffic situation? Will a metro network along the east side of the parliament complex compromise further a compromised plan?