C T Online Desk: Chittagong’s first elevated expressway will open for commercial vehicle operations on Thursday.
On that day, the construction authority, Chittagong Development Authority (CDA), will officially start collecting tolls at the Patenga end of the expressway, Executive Engineer and Project Director Md Mahfuzur Rahman confirmed.
He said: “From Thursday, vehicles will begin using the elevated expressway commercially. Toll collection will start at 10am that day, initially at four booths located at the Patenga end. CDA will manage toll collection at first, but later, the responsibility will be handed over to the contractor.”
The expressway has been open for trial runs since August 28, without any tolls being collected.
According to CDA sources, the project implementation body submitted a revised toll rate proposal to the Ministry of Housing and Public Works on November 3, which was approved on November 27.
The expressway will accommodate 10 types of vehicles, excluding motorcycles and trailer trucks.
The finalized toll rates are: private car Tk80, jeep Tk100, microbus Tk100, pickup Tk150, minibus Tk200, bus Tk280, truck (4 wheels) Tk200, truck (6 wheels) Tk300, covered van Tk500, and autorickshaw Tk30.
Discussions with engineers from CDA and the contractor revealed that the expressway, initially planned to be 16.5 kilometers long, currently spans 15.2 kilometers.
Although the original design proposed 20 ramps for vehicle access, only 14 were constructed, with five deemed unnecessary.
Currently, nine ramps are operational for vehicle movement, and their combined length is only half of the originally planned 12 kilometers.
The project is being implemented by the Bangladeshi contracting firm Max Infrastructure Limited and the Chinese firm Rankin.
The expressway was originally slated for completion in June 2020, but the deadline was extended to June 2024 and subsequently to June 2025.
Even before construction was completed, the expressway was inaugurated on November 14 last year via video conference by the then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
According to project officials, the project was approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) in 2017 with an estimated cost of Tk3,250 crore and a completion target of three years.
Although construction began mid-2018, actual work commenced on February 24, 2019.
In 2022, design revisions increased the budget by Tk1,048 crore, extending the deadline to June 2024.
However, due to further delays, the project’s completion timeline has now been extended to June 2025.
