Road Transport System of Greater Rajshahi District : A Geographical Analysis

Abstract

Greater Rajshahi district consists of four separate district viz-Naogaon, Natore, Nawabgonj and Rajshahi, with an area of 9456 km: having population of 6384068 (1991). In this study the spatial pattern of road transport system of the said district has been analyzed. Two main aspects of road transport system has been out lined in the present study I. e. the development of road, its density and distribution and the measurement of traffic volumes (vehicles, goods and passengers) of different nodes and routes of the study area. Though different types of vehicles are playing on road yet the author in this study considered only bus, Minibus, and truck as the intermodal (intercity) connecting vehicles. Out of 32 administrative units of the study area Boalia and Paba are considered as one node named Rajshahi and other six important nodes (Ahmedpur, Amnura, Baneswa, Banpara, Sampur and Walia)

which are play an important role on the road transport system considered here as the nodes of the transport network of the study area. "There are 1400 km. of metaled and 11,387 km. of non-metaled road in the study area. Out of 1400 km metaled road 772 km are intemode connecting RHD road, which are divided into 43 routes by 37 nodes of the study area. Daily traffic volumes of 37 nodes of the study area are 4,906 vehicles. 13,570 tons of goods and 190,5000 passengers. On the basis of collected information the author in this study analyzed the data in three basic concepts: Such as a) Spatial Interaction: b) Network Analysis (m: = 7, 0= IO, a.= 0.10, p = 1.16, ¥=0.41, o = 20.86, Tl= 107.95) c) Urban Hierarchy.