The proposal from a Malaysian construction group Azimat Consortium, got consent from a cabinet meeting in July last year during BNP-led four-party alliance government's rule.

The proposal had also been approved by the Ministry of Communications and a high-powered private infrastructure committee (PICOM) before it was placed for the cabinet approval, according to sources.

Azimat Consortium was supposed to start constructing the expressway by the end of last year. A formal agreement was also expected to be signed between the government and the construction company finalising the terms and conditions.

But the present caretaker government took up a seven-month long feasibility study of the project with assistance from Asian Development Bank (ADB), which is unlikely to be finished before the end of this year.

After finishing the feasibility study, the government will go for an international tender inviting foreign investment for the project.

"We are not cancelling the investment proposal of Azimat Consortium but they will have to go through all government procedures regarding foreign investment in the infrastructure building sector," said a high official of the communications ministry.

"It will take at least another year to get the final approval as the feasibility study is unlikely to be finished this year," the ministry official said requesting anonymity.

The official also said Azimat qualified in the preliminary bid and it will be allowed to participate in the international tender, but it will get the approval only if no other company can beat it in the bidding.

The government is also thinking of shifting the alignment of the expressway making it parallel to the existing Dhaka--Chittagong highway.

For constructing the six-lane expressway, as proposed by the Malaysian company, it will require requisitioning of at least 2,500 acres of farm land, an estimate that puts the government in a dilemma of whether to construct the expressway at the expense of so much agricultural land.

The Malaysian company committed to finish the construction work within a three-year period and to handover the 210-kilometre long expressway to the government after operating it for 30 years on the basis of build, operate and transfer (BOT) principle. The proposed investment would also be recovered from the toll collected from the vehicle operators who would use the expressway.

The proposed expressway would reduce the journey time between the two most important cities of the country to 3 to 4 hours from the existing 6 to 7 hours.

The feasibility study group led by Kazi M Hasan presented the first report in the second week of this month. The study found that at least 11 major bridges with more than 60-metre of lengths each and three flyovers will also need to be built to construct the expressway.

The study report however has yet to assess the actual cost of building such a modern expressway in the country.

The group conducted preliminary surveys and drew conceptual designs of the expressway in two different alignments. According to the first design, the alignment of the expressway would be parallel to the existing Dhaka--Chittagong highway and the alternative alignment would have the expressway go through Munshiganj, Chandpur and Sonagazi connecting it with the existing highway at Mirersharai in Chittagong.

The Malaysian company proposed to construct the expressway according to the alternative alignment without involving any government expenditure.

Sources at the Board of Investment (BoI) however said the Malaysian investment proposal was not registered with the board. Although foreign investment proposals usually come through BoI, they get registrations after approval from the government agency concerned, said a BoI source.