C T Online Desk:The country enters the era of elevated expressway today with the inauguration of the dream project undertaken by the present government to ease the nagging traffic congestion in the capital.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate a portion (11.5 kilomteres) of the much-awaited Dhaka Elevated Expressway from Airport to Farmgate through a programme at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar at 3:30pm.
This section of the expressway will open to traffic tomorrow (Sunday), official sources said.
The total length of the elevated expressway, stretching from Kawla near Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital to Kutubkhali on Chittagong Road is 19.73 kilometres.
The Awami League-led government has already created two milestones on the country’s development front by constructing two mega projects — Padma Multipurpose Bridge and Metro Rail— by overcoming a sea of hurdles.
The premier inaugurated the country’s biggest infrastructure Padma Bridge on June 25, 2022. The government built the bridge on the mighty Padma River with internal resources, breaking the trend of dependency on others in implementing development programmes.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has translated this dream into reality by constructing the Padma Bridge with own resources following the World Bank’s withdrawal of $1.2 billion fund from the project.
Bangladesh started coming out of the cycle of dependency on others as the AL government has been carrying out various development programmes on the country’s 56,000 square miles of land.
Sheikh Hasina also inaugurated a portion (11.73-kilomtere) of Dhaka Metro Rail, stretching from Diabari to Agargaon, built under the Mass Rapid Transit Development Project (Line 6) on December 28, 2022.
Several other mega projects such as Bangabandhu Tunnel, Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, Padma Rail Link, Matarbari Coal-fired Power Plant and Payra Deep Sea Port are expected to be opened soon.
Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader on Friday said the AL-led government, by implementing the Padma Bridge and Metro Rail projects, has already proved that it believes in action, not in words. “People’s support for the Awami League is now higher than before thanks to the countrywide development programmes carried out by the present government,” he said.
The government had signed an agreement with Italian-Thai Company for implementing the Elevated Expressway project on PPP basis at a cost of Tk 89.40 billion. The project had to go through financing problem, change in design and land acquisition complications for nearly a decade.
“The project will contribute a lot to improving the capital’s north-south connectivity and have a substantial impact on traffic management as it will create additional road space in the city,” Bridges Division Secretary Md Monjur Hossain told the Daily Sun on Thursday.
Experts say that the expressway will ease traffic congestion in the capital and save working hours. The traffic jam causes an annual loss of Tk 20,000 crore to Tk 55,000 crore, they say.
The Bridges Division hopes that the country might save a staggering Tk 2,000 to Tk 3,000 crore every year once the elevated expressway completely opens to traffic.
