Gazipur BRT Must Not Become a Symbol of Waste, Mismanagement 

We find it difficult to look at the government’s latest decision on the Gazipur Bus Rapid Transit project with anything other than pure frustration. Fourteen long years of relentless gridlock, Tk 2,811 crore down the drain and seven tragic lives lost have all culminated in complete failure. Back in 2012, planners promised us a sleek, modern transit line capable of moving 25,000 commuters every day between Gazipur and Dhaka Airport. Today, however, that promise lies in ruins. On October 18, the Cabinet quietly gave the go-ahead to tear down dedicated BRT structures and turn the route into just another six-lane highway. Thus, it serves as a painful reminder of how much administrative incompetence really costs us, making it clear that the Gazipur BRT must not become a monument to waste and mismanagement.

Against this backdrop, this sudden about-face leaves ordinary citizens asking the uncomfortable question our policymakers keep dodging: How on earth does a mega-project hit 97 per cent physical completion without carrying a single passenger for a single mile?

The truth, therefore, is simple: pure negligence, poor coordination and terrible planning. In a slip-up that defies basic common sense, engineers built high-platform stations for buses with right-hand doors, completely ignoring that virtually every local bus in Bangladesh opens on the left. Meanwhile, utility moves dragged on for years, costs tripled, and sloppy safety standards turned one of our busiest highways into a dangerous hazard. By the time BUET experts recommended scrapping the scheme, they only confirmed what commuters already knew - a fancy project plan means nothing if nobody checks whether it works in the real world.

As always, everyday people pick up the bill. Commuters heading in and out of Gazipur still spend hours stuck in agonising traffic, while small shop owners along the strip have watched years of business evaporate. Moreover, urban planners now warn that demolishing station hubs, ramps and escalators will wipe out another Tk 1,000 crore of public money. More importantly, imagine what a competent team could have done with those funds to actually improve regional transit.

Even so, scrapping a broken project might cut future losses, but turning our backs on public transportation altogether is the wrong move. Converting the corridor into an open highway prioritises private cars over thousands of working-class commuters who desperately need reliable, affordable rides. Concurrently, instead of giving up, the government ought to move quickly on practical fixes, also upgrading and expanding commuter train lines between Gazipur and Kamalapur.

At the end of the day, we view the Gazipur BRT debacle as a harsh lesson in how not to run public development. True progress is never about the size of a project budget or the fanfare at a ribbon-cutting ceremony; it is about whether everyday life gets any easier for ordinary citizens. Simply wiping away administrative bodies and repaving road lanes will not fix the deeper rot. Nevertheless, until we hold those responsible for these massive blunders genuinely accountable, the Gazipur BRT will remain a stark monument to waste and mismanagement.