Public Transport in Dhaka: Organizational, Funding, and Financing Issues for Sustainable Development

With more than 15 million inhabitants in an area of some 360 sq km, Dhaka emerges as one of the rapidly growing, densely populated, congested, and polluted mega-cities in the world today. Dhaka's transportation system is road based, and transport infrastructure is substantially inadequate with approximately 7% land dedicated to transport infrastructure. Despite the tremendous demands for public transportation services, Dhaka is poorly served by only a bus-based system, and government has yet to articulate strong policies, regulations, and investment commitments in this sector. The Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC), a poorly funded government agency, provides bus service covering only a small area of the large metropolis. Privately owned and operated bus transit providers are very fragmented and unorganized small companies that provide inadequate and very poor quality of service. The resulting effect is a degraded mobility for the dwellers that severely hampers livelihoods, economic growth, and productivity. The focus of this paper is to addresses the scopes and opportunities for the government and private sectors to participate in the development of a sound public transportation system from organizational, operational, and investment (e.g., funding and financing) prospective. As such, the paper critically examines various organizational settings, as well as funding and financing options and mechanisms from local socioeconomic and governmental contexts, and makes recommendations accordingly. The paper suggests that the national government should focus on enacting appropriate policies and regulations to establish an umbrella organization that would ensure seamless transit service across jurisdictions and consolidate/integrate all service providers. Finally, the paper discusses the opportunities for the private transit providers to participate in the operations of routes and systems under a public and private partnership framework.