Rajshahi is the fourth largest city of Bangladesh having a population of around 8 lakhs with a high urbanization rate of 32.93%. The transportation system of Rajshahi is comprising of motorized transport (bus, mini-bus, truck, car, auto-rickshaw, auto-tempo, motorcycle, etc.) and nonmotorized transports (viz. rickshaw, rickshaw van, bicycle, pushcart, etc.). The rapidly increasing population along with the diversified land-use patterns generating considerable transport demands on the transportation system and the higher number of transport vehicles causes numerous problems in the city such as traffic congestion, road accidents, less effective and inefficient traffic movement, inadequate traffic management, environmental pollution, sound pollution and so on. The number of private vehicles is increasing day by day because there is no public transport system with an effective public transport network within the city. As a result, major shares of the roads are occupied by the small vehicles make complexities for efficient traffic movement. According to a recent analysis of RCC (Rajshahi City Corporation) the annual average growth rate of these traffics is motorized (8.50%), auto-rickshaw (12.30%), motorcycle (12.60%), truck (5.30%) and car (5.70%). So, the upcoming future of the transport sector in Rajshahi city is going to face an uncertain challenge through the increasing population and rapidly growing motorized traffics which will affect the efficiency and effectiveness of the transport systems. In view of the worsening traffic congestion and deterioration inaccessibility, level of service, safety, and operational efficiency, it is time to introduce the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). In this paper, an attempt has been made to provide an overview of the public transportation system of Rajshahi city and five major BRT routes have been proposed for ever-increasing public transport demand towards alleviation of congestion level and achieving a sustainable urban public transport system.
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