|
Baghdad Metro Project: is it the definitive solution to the problem of transportation?
|
|
Translated by IRAQdirectory.com - [4/4/2007]
|
|
|
The secretariat of Baghdad announced that it included Baghdad Metro project within its plan for 2007; one billion dinars have been allocated to do the detailed surveys and designs only, which have a total cost of about $ 10 million. The secretariat will start the implementation of the first phase of the project, "32 km" at the end of the current year.
Engineer Bashar Al-Hafidh, expert in the field of roads and transport, said that Baghdad Metro Project is not a definitive solution to the problem of transportation, but will reduce it by a certain degree that does not equal the costs required to implement this project, which is not new, since it interested the former regime which made a comprehensive study for the transportation issues in Baghdad during the period 1979 – 1983; the study concluded that the Baghdad Metro project, with its two phases, will bear only a fraction of the traffic in the city, and the study identified four strategies indicating the alternatives to public transport for the year 2000, and they are:
First: dependence on buses only.
Second: rely on buses in addition to the first phase of the metro by the length of 32 km and the buses operate separately from the metro.
Third: using buses along with the first phase of the metro, and buses work in a coordinated fashion to feed the metro.
Fourth: using buses, in addition to the first phase of the metro, as well as extending the first phase to additional 15 km, and buses operate in a coordinated manner to feed the metro.
It should be noted that the contribution of Baghdad Metro will be about 2% only in dealing with the crisis, according to strategy no. (2), and about 10% according to strategy no. (4); thus the benefits of the project at the current stage are no equivalent to the costs, problems and difficulties arising from the implementation of the project which will take several years.
Engineer Bashar Al-Hafidh called for the postponement of this project at the current stage, until preparing the new basic design for the city of Baghdad, then make a comprehensive updated transportation study consistent with the basic new design and provide complete data derived from stable conditions. He added that it is better to implement projects more feasible, effective and easy to develop the transport and traffic in the city, like improving the roads intersections, traffic management and activating public transport with new buses.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|