Infrastructure Develpment Plan

 

 

Transportation Plan

 

The transportation system directs the urban development pattern. The performance of transportation system largely influences the economy and social progress of an area. It provides mobility to people, goods and particular services to their destinations. It has linkages with other sectors of development and for a sustainable balanced development of any area, its traffic and transportation system should be adequately addressed.

 

Transportation and Traffic Management

 

A comprehensive transportation study is undertaken to investigate the existing transportation infrastructure, transportation modes and modal share scenario of Sreemongal Pourashava and to estimate the anticipated transportation needs of the proposed project area up to the year 2030 to meet the transportation needs of the project area during the next quarter century.

 

Existing Road, Railway and River Way Networks

 

Sreemongal Pourashava is the business nucleus of the district of Moulvibazar. It is larger than many district headquarters of the country. Her panoramic beauty has made it one of the nation’s most attractive tourist spots. Located midway between Sylhet, Moulvibazar and Habiganj it has emerged as the communication junction for a lot of places. Sreemongal Pourashava is connected by road network and railway network with different important urban centers.

 

Major Road Network

 

Sreemongal Pourashava is situated about 13 miles short of Moulvibazar on the Dhaka Sylhet highway. It has developed largely on both sides of the highway and the Dhaka Sylhet railway track. A number of major roads connect the town to different urban centers including district headquarters, divisional head quarters and capital of the country. Major roads started from the northern part of the town form CBD of the Pourashava. The four major roads coming from four different directions meet together at the Moulvibazar Road Choumohuna. The major routes which connect Sreemongal Pourashava are:

Apart from major roads, a large number of local roads having width varying from 10 ft. to 20ft, provide access to individual houses and establishments and connect them to major roads. Map 6.1 shows the road network of Sreemongal Pourashava

 

 

Roads in Sreemangal Pourashava

 

Total length of roads in the Sreemongal project area is 74.002 km. A total of 36.12 km road exists within the Pourashava area and the rest 37.882 km exists in the extended area of the Pourashava. Lengths of katcha, semi-pucca and pucca roads within Pourashava are respectively 8.989 km, 2.284 km and 24.847 km. And the lengths of katcha, semi-pucca and pucca roads of extended area of Sreemongal Pourashava are respectively 21.085 km, 5.928 km and 37.882 km. The highest length (3.456 km) of pucca road of Sreemongal Pourashava exists in ward no. 01.

 

Existing Railway Network

 

Sreemongal Pourashava has one railway station. This railway network connects Sreemongal Pourashava with Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet and other important urban centers.

 

Existing Waterway Network

 

There is no waterway network in and around Sreemongal Pourashava.

 

Existing Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure

 

Sreemongal Pourashava project area has three bus stands, one non-formal truck terminal, five non-formal tempo, CNG auto rickshaw stands and one railway station.

 

Bus Stand

 

There are two bus stands within Sreemongal Pourashava and one bus stand is located in the extended area of the pourashva. Habigonj/Moulvibazar bus stand is located north east side of the town, beside Habigonj Road in the extended area of Sreemongal Pourashava. The buses are normally parked beside Habigonj road or on street, with a capacity of accommodating 20-30 buses at a time. The other bus stands are located beside Vanugach road near to the south east corner of Pourashava office premise. At a time 5-10 buses can be accommodated at Vanugach bus stand. The Mirzapur bus stand is located beside station road. About 2-6 buses can be accommodated in this bus stand. It is mentionable that Mirzapur bus stand is located in a private land. In the future plan of the Pourashava, a bus terminal may be proposed. The location of the terminal will be decided after detailed analysis of the traffic situation.

 

Truck Terminal

 

As an old town and being located midway between Sylhet, Moulvibazar and Habiganj, Sreemongal Pourashava has emerged as an important communication junction. Apart from it’s central location, it has become strategically important for various reasons. A large amount of the nation’s foreign currency is generated from Sreemongal, which stems from the tea industry. Also Sreemongal is the major producer of nation’s citrus namely pineapple, lemon and few orange. So the economic activity is very high in Sreemongal Pourashava. As a result, movement of trucks is high in this area. But there is no formal truck terminal in Sreemongal Pourashava.The trucks are usually parked beside Vanugach road, Habigonj road and Station road. To reduce the traffic congestion, it should need a permanent truck terminal.

 

Tempo, micro bus, car and CNG Stand

 

Tempo is now a major and cheap transport mode in small towns that play important role in commuter transportation. There are five non-formal tempo stands at Sreemongal Pourashava. These are Tempo and CNG auto rickhshaw stands beside Vanugacha Road, in front of Chitrali Cinema Hall, beside the Mirzapur bus stand, and Moulvibazar road choumohuna. The future plan of the Pourashava must consider the aspects of smaller vehicles, both motorized and non-motorized.

 

Major traffic generating centers and areas of congestion

 

Traffic conflict is common and frequent in towns, where there is combination of slow and fast transport vehicles on the streets. Major conflicts occur in the places, where intensity of traffic movement is high, on street parking is made and on street loading or unloading of goods take place. The consultant studied the traffic movement all over the town and has identified three main points where the traffic conflict is the highest. These are located at Moulvibazar road choumohuna, Vanugach Rail crossing, Vanugach and Station road intersection and Habigonj/Moulvibazar bus stsnd. At these points, the slow moving vehicles like, rickshaws and vans come in conflict with motor vehicles, creating traffic congestion. And at Vanugach railway crossing, traffic congestion occurs when trains passed by. As the number of slow moving vehicles is higher, the conflict is usually frequent.

 

Mode of Transport

 

It is clearly evident from the survey that majority of the people choose non-motorized vehicle to go to their desired destinations and hence NMT is the most widely used transport mode for Sreemongal like most of other Pourashavas. Two types of NMT dominate whole status of the modal choice namely, rickshaw and bicycle, covering 43% and 5% of the total transport mode respectively. The third favorite mode is motor cycle which covers 23% of total transport mode. Figure 5.5 shows the details of modal choice of the poura people.

 

Traffic Flow

 

Traffic flow is not uniform in all roads. For obvious reasons, flow is higher in busy areas of the main town, and low in peripheral areas. The bazar areas and the areas adjacent to the Pourashava, Upazila health complex, and Upazila Administrative complex have the highest traffic flow. Traffic volume study gives information about traffic flow at important roads of the town. The highest number of traffic, 5369 (1802 MT and 3567 NMT) pass through Moulvibazar road to Dhaka/Habigonj road. The lowest number of traffic, 1164 (251 MT and 913 NMT) pass through College road to station road.

 

Traffic Volume

 

Sreemongal is an old regional town with high level of economic activity. So traffic movement is also very high in the town. There are several major road intersections in the heart of the town. A traffic volume survey was conducted in the most important intersection of Sreemongal Pourashava (Moulvibazar intersection) on December, 2008 to know the existing directional traffic flow. Here College road, Station road and Habigonj road intersect with Moulvibazar road. It reveals that the NMT are more than MT vehicles in most directions of the intersections. The highest number of traffic, 5369 (1802 MT and 3567 NMT) pass through Moulvibazar road to Dhaka/Habigonj road. The lowest number of traffic, 1164(251 MT and 913 NMT) pass through College road to station road. It flows of vehicles are Moulvibazar to Habigonj road, where flows of NMT vehicles are much more than the MT vehicles. It is evident from the table that in all the directions, there are mainly two peak hours, between 7 am to 12 am and again from 3 pm to 6 pm. During the first peak, the commuters move to their work places during the early hours of the day, again the second peak occurs as the commuters start to return home after their work.

 

Transportation Facilities and Services

 

 

Bus Routes and Movements

 

There are three bus routes that connect Sreemongal with Moulvibazar, Sylhet, Habigonj and Dhaka. Vanugach, Shamshernagar etc. Near about 10,000 passengers are traveling among these different destinations.

 

Number of Bus Fleets/Trips in Operation

 

Directly on an average 225 inter district bus trips are made each way daily. Among these directly between Beanibazar via Sreemongal to Dhaka about 12 bus trips are made each way daily, Moulvibazar via Sreemongal to Dhaka 72 bus trips are made each way daily, Sylhet via Sreemongal to Habigonj 56 bus trips are made each way daily. On the other hand, a total of 144 intra district trips are made each way daily form Sreemongal pourashava. Among these, the highest each way daily intra districts trips (36) are made between Sreemongal via Vanugach to Gatrokhola.

 

Railway Service

 

Sreemongal pourashava is connected with Dhaka, Sylhet and Chaittgong by railway network. It gets the service of Parabat, Upobon, Udoyane and Paharika inter-city train services. And it also gets local train services of Kushiyara, Jalabad, S.S. Car and Surma mail.

 

Auto-Tempo: Route and Passenger Movement

 

Tempos mostly carry commuting passengers from nearby growth and urban centers and their maximum journey length is about one hour. The nearby destinations include Vanugach, Pathorkhol, Shoshernagar, and Adampur. About 20-30 tempos operate daily between Sreemongal and all these destinations with over 72 trips daily. Estimation shows that the daily volume of the commuters is about 2000.

 

Autorickshaw Service

 

Apart from auto tempo, about 100 CNG auto rickshaws operate daily from Sreemongal to different routes - Sreemongal to Vanugach, Shashernagar, Moulvibazar, and Madhabpur. Near about 400 trips are made among these destinations. The auto rickshaws operate from in front of Chitra Cinema Hall, Vanugach bus stand and Sreemongal bus stand.

 

Microbus and Car Services

 

Microbus and Car mostly carry commuting passengers to different longer distances, especially communicate for inter district services. The micro bus stand of Sreemongal is located beside Mirzapur bus stand and beside Vanugach road. About 100 microbuses and 100 cars are available for rent and each of them make one or more trips each day.

 

Non-Motorized Traffic Volume

 

The non-motorized traffic operating in the town are bicycle, rickshaw, push cart, van and school van. Pourashava has the power to offer licenses for the non-motorized transport as described above. The current number of non-motorized traffic in the town is about 1817 that include rickshaw, rickshaw van and push cart. There exist both registered and non-motorized vehicles in the town. In 2007-2008, 1185 rickshaws were registered with the Pourashava. The highest number of rickshaws (1553) was registered in 2004-2005. A total of 72 push carts are operating in the town. There is no provision of registering bicycle and rickshaw van in the Pourashava.

 

Parking

 

As the town has large number of traffic so the local government feels it necessary to reserve parking space. At present, there are no formal parking reserves for non-motorized transports. However, tempo and baby taxis are informally parked in particular areas.

 

Footpath

 

The town does not have any footpath anywhere. In small town like, Sreemongal, footpaths are usually absent, as it is given the least priority in development plan. In the plan, foot path has to be given an importance for easy movement of pedestrians

 

Traffic management system

 

Traffic management in the town is done in two ways- through physical planning and manual management. Physical management is done through signals and street markings, while manual management is operated by the traffic police. It is observed that transport operators are mostly unruly and have disregard for traffic rules. This is a major reason for traffic congestion in the town.

 

Identification Problems Concerning Transportation and Traffic Management

 

As any other town, Sreemongal has its own road and transportation problems. These problems have been identified from two different sources-first, by reconnaissance survey of the town, and second, by means of household sample survey. A household survey was conducted in the Pourashava to ascertain pattern of socio-economic problems and the perception of households about various problems of the town. There are some questions about traffic and transportation issues and problems. The answers received from the respondents have been compiled and presented in this section.
As per the field survey, 74% respondents reported that the roads in front of their houses are pucca followed by 20% semi-pucca and 6% katcha road.
Poor maintenance, traffic jam, inundation during rainy season and narrow widths of roads are identified as major problems by most of the respondents in the town. Indicating to major road problems, they pointed to narrow road (34%), broken roads due to poor maintenance (46%), flooding of roads during monsoon (4%), and traffic jam (11 %).

 

Identification of Prospects Concerning Transportation and Traffic Management

 

Sreemongal Pourashava (municipality) is the business nucleus of the district of Moulvibazar. It is larger than many district headquarters of the country. Her panoramic beauty has made it one of the nation’s most attractive tourist spots. Located midway between Sylhet, Moulvibazar and Habiganj it has emerged as the communication junction for a lot of places. It has developed largely on both sides of the highway and the Dhaka Sylhet railway track. These have to be considered during the preparation of the Master Plan.
The existing roads are mostly narrow, which require widening and improvements of pavement. The Pourashava has a good interaction with Moulvibazar, Sylhet, Habigonj and Dhaka city, which with improvement in the economic condition of the Pourashava will be further strengthened. Some road segments within the Pourashava are not of good condition to encourage further development.
The non-motorized vehicles, mainly rickshaws are reason for current traffic congestion in the town, which has to be addressed in the Master Plan of the Pourashava. The road intersections require improvement for easier traffic circulation.

 

Future Projection

 

 

Method Used

 

Road is one of the most critical areas of the current planning project. The main problem of present road network is that there is no systematic planning of the roads, whether highway or local roads. There is no logical links of roads, no plan to link the important activity areas where mobility is high. The present level of urban infrastructure at the Upazila Town in Bangladesh is lagged behind any physical planning norms and standards. After reviewing different previous planning proposals in Bangladesh and also other similar countries, and after long discussions with experts and LGED officials of this project, the consultant has finalized a set of standards for basic infrastructure and services at Upazila level towns. Accordingly different standards have been suggested for different types of Pourashava roads, which are as follows:

 

Geometric Design Standards of Roads

 

Types of Land Uses	Recommended Standard Provision (unit)
Roads Pourashava primary roadsPourashava secondary roadsPourashava local roads	150 –100 feet 100 – 60 feet 40 -        20 feet

 

Other Transport Facilities	Standard
Bus terminal	1.00 acre/20,000 population
Truck terminal	0.50 acre/20,000 population
Launch/steamer terminal	1.00 acre/20,000 population
Railway station	2.00 acre/20,000 population
Baby taxi/Tempo stand	0.25 acre/ 1 Baby taxi/Tempo stand
Rickshaw/Van stand	0.25 acre/ Rickshaw/Van stand
Passenger shed	0.25 acre/20,000 population

 

Demand Analysis

 

Transportation infrastructure is a very important element to make an urban center livable. For transportation of agro products, efficient rural road network is also of prime importance. The potential economic development envisages improvement of the transportation network to facilitate development that can meet the demand on regional-local basis. Actually, the area is served by only one narrow district road which may become inadequate due to induced activities after the implementation of the present master plan. Widening the present one and some new roads have to be constructed for efficient movement of passengers and goods.
Suitable road section will be designed at the draft planning stage. On the other hand, the area will need connector roads with different growth centers and important places of economic activities. The hierarchy of road system will be defined with adequate road section for each type of road. An efficient transportation system will enable the project area to develop as an important commercial and administrative centre through proper functioning of its economic activities as well as administrative functions thus making it an important place in terms of administrative, social, manufacturing, commercial, communication and academic institutions in Sylhet region of the country.