Transportation system of Bangladesh: At a glance

Road Rail Paved Road : 63,692 km (23.47%) Unpaved Road : 207,709 km (76.53% Bangladesh Railway has a Total route 2734 Km 901 km of Broad Gauge (BG) 1833 km Gauge (MG). 489 stations spread over the entire country. Bangladesh has about 24,000 km. of rivers, streams and canals that together cover about 7% of the country's surface. about 5,968 km. is navigable by mechanized vessels during monsoon period which shrinks to about 3,865km. during dry period. The IWT sector carries over 50% of all arterial freight traffic one quarter of all passenger traffic. Air Air traffic is insignificant (less than 0.5% of the traffic volume) compared to other modes of transport.

Water

Modal Share of three surfaces of Bangladesh

(estimated on the basis of 1993 and 1996 data)

Passengers
Road Inland Water Rail 72% 17% 11%

Freight
65% 28% 07%

Transportation System of Dhaka

Road 3000 km 200 km Primary

110 km Secondary
50 km Feeder 2640 km Narrow Roads Rail Water 37 km Buriganga Turag Balu Air Sitalakhya Zia International Airport

Mode
Walk

Daily % by trips mode

5159007 60.22

Rickshaw 1646064 19.21 Bus Water Car Train 787028 274634 266243 2752 9.19 3.32 3.11 .03

Important changes in the Transportation System of Dhaka

The earliest raised roads and embankments constructed in the Bengal basin was the road running on raised embankment, from Dhaka to Sangramgarh (supposed to be in Noakhali district). East Pakistan inherited only about 480 km of metalled road of good quality. East west route along the river and three north-south roads leading in to old town connecting with the new town for a comprehensive road system to improve circulation of traffic within Dhaka was proposed in the first Master Plan of Dhaka, 1959. Under a realignment scheme, work on shifting the Dhaka railway station from the congested Phulbaria area to Kamalapur was started in late 1950s. The new station was opened to traffic on 1 May 1968. Since then, the old track has been developed into a broad road connecting Kawranbazar with Phulbaria through Plassey and Nilkhet to the northwest and Swamibagh-Zatrabari through Wari to the north and Narinda to the southeast.

The construction of the Madaripur Beel Route was started in 1900. Calcutta and Dhaka was linked by the Madaripur Beel. Only after the coming of the railway, the riverfront began to lose its prime importance as residential area. This way the city turned its face towards land.
The aviation industry of Bangladesh started its operations just after independence in 1972 at Tejgaon Airport in DHAKA with only one aircraft.

1885

1959