Transportation Problem and Solution in Case of Bangladesh Essay Example

intensity of the Bangladesh economy is considerably lower than that of many developing countries.

The relative roles of transport modes are evolving with road transport expanding at the expense of railways and inland water transport because of its inherent technical and cost advantages. According to Bangladesh Transport Sector Study (1994), the volume of road transport increased by 88 per cent from 1985 through 1993, whereas the volume of transport by water as well as rail declined in almost equal proportion.

With the commissioning of the Bangabandhu Bridge, the volume of road transport for both passenger and freight is expected to increase quite substantially. In order to enable the beneficiaries to avail of its full potentials, the bridge will generate demand for construction of by-passes and roads and bridges in different strategic parts of the country. Thus, the future expansion program of each of the surface transport modes in providing transport services depends crucially on government policy and investment decisions keeping in view the past transport development trend and the recently changed scenario in the transport sector. Modal shares of three surface transports- road, inland water way and railway in 1997 (estimated on the basis of 1993 and 1996 data) are 72 per cent, 17 per cent and 11 per cent respectively for passengers and 65 per cent, 28 per cent and 7 per cent respectively for freight.

Major Constraints

The development of surface transport system in Bangladesh is constrained by three distinct sets of factors. These are physical (e.g., difficult terrain, periodic flooding, poor soil condition, siltation and erosion of rivers, inherited management weaknesses of BR etc.), low investments and maintenance

and inadequate institutional framework (four ministries, nine transport sector parastatals and lack of co-ordination and autonomy of transport parastatals).

Transport Sector Allocation in Past Plans

The public sector allocation for the transport sector during the past Plans in base-year prices of each plan period are shown below:

* This amount includes Tk. 2,620 million allocated by NICAR for thana connecting roads and Tk. 1,033 million allocated for the roads of Chittagong Hill Tracts from Special fund.

Financial Performance of Transport Sector Parastatals

Public sector involvement in the transport system of Bangladesh consists of ownership and operation of nine parastatals. The parastatals have poor financial performance except the two seaports. The poor financial performance of the parastatals and their weak capital structure created a financial liability on the government of around Tk. 2,000 million annually till 1995. However, the situation has been improving in recent years. To address the problem, the government has been pursuing the two-pronged policy of privatization and restructuring of public sector transport parastatals for achieving improved administrative, management and operational performances.

Fifth Five Year Plan

Objectives:

To achieve an average GDP growth rate of 7 per cent per annum the transport sector growth rate is projected to increase by 7.51 per cent per annum. Keeping in view the increased volume of domestic traffic as well as the accommodation of future traffic from the Asian Highway and Trans-Asian Railway, the main objective of the Fifth Plan will be to develop a balanced and integrated transport network through adoption of strategies/programs as described below.

Strategies :

For transport network development strategy, an optimal mix

of "market integration approach" and "poles of development approach" will be adopted. Operational significance of this mixed strategy is that development efforts will be concentrated on five main corridors: Dhaka-Chittagong, Dhaka-Northwest, Dhaka-Khulna, Dhaka-Sylhet and Khulna-Northwest with special emphasis on Dhaka-Chittagong, Dhaka-Northwest and Khulna-Northwest arterial corridors. Besides these, the road linkages passing through Khulna, Barisal, Bhola, Lakshmipur and Chittagong will be improved.

This development strategy is to be reinforced by the rural transport development strategy. Rural transport system will be developed by integrating inland water transport sub-sector with the existing road transport system and within the road transport sub-sector by adding off-road internal access dimension. To this network development strategy, urban transport sector dimension will be added. The elements of this strategy to be pursued during the Fifth Five Year Plan will be as follows:

1. The `Arterial Corridors' will be designated as 'Strategic Corridors' and required investment will be made for the development of bridges, ferries and road upgrading works on these corridors to raise them to international standards so that these can carry the regional and inter-regional traffic;
2. The two sea ports will be further developed and linked to Dhaka, which connects all the four major regions of the country;
3. Railway linkages will be established between the east and west zones of the country;
4. The development strategy for the rural transport will be reoriented for efficient external access through optimal integration of road and inland water transport and off-road internal accesses;
5. Improvement in resource mobilisation will be made through introduction of user charges and fees by the agencies;
6. Improvement of the management
   

and operation of transport parastatals, including eventual privatisation of all or parts of specific transport parastatals will be aimed at;