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July 22, 2005
US company keen to construct sky rail in Bangladesh
A US private transport company has Expressed its keen interest to set up sky rail lines from Narayanganj to Joydevpur and Sadarghat to Savar to facilitate transportation system of Bangladesh.
American Transport System Corporation (ATSC) has already talked to the authorities of Equalizer, a local private company, to implement the project in a partnership basis, said Chairman of Equalizer Md. Younusuzzaman here on Thursday.
Talking to a group of newsmen at the Jatiya Press Club, he said that they would make a proposal to the government in this regard soon. “We have held primary discussion with the ATSC to this end and the authorities of the US private company has expressed interest to invest 800 million US dollars to implement the project,” he said.
He said nearly 100-kilometre rail lines would be set up under the project that includes 40-KM line from Narayanganj- Joydevpur, nearly 40-km from Sadarghat-Savar and 20-km circular railway line.
Under the project, he said, a 50-megawat power plant would be set up for meeting electricity requirements to run trains between the routes, he said adding that passengers from each stations would be able to avail train in every two minutes.
Younusuzzaman, however, said “Initially we have assessed that one million people to be transited every day after introduction of the Light Rail Way Transport (LRT)” system. Besides, 3,000 new jobs would be created in the project.
He said the project, if government approved, would be implemented under the guidelines of BOT (built, operate and transfer) system. It is expected to take 36-40 months to complete the project.
Giving details, Md. Anwarul Quaium, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Equalizer said the rail line would be constructed on the existing road divider and the height of the rail line would be 33 feet.
“We have floated the idea as introduction of much-talked about metro tube is not feasible for the country due to its soil condition,” he said.
Besides, Quaium said most of the buildings in the city are not earthquake proof. Therefore, those buildings will be damaged if underground metro tubes are operated.
He said after full implementation of the project, the traffic congestion in the city would be eased as well as pressure on the capital city would be reduced.
He said the American private company (ATSC) has constructed light rail transport line in India, Taiwan, South Korea, Philippines and Malaysia. In New York, over five million people are being transited through sky rail line every day.
Posted by admin at July 22, 2005 04:24 AM