Moghbazar-mouchak Flyover: 450-metre stretch opens to traffic
A short stretch of the Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover in the capital was opened to traffic yesterday, allowing vehicles to come down near the Sonargaon hotel from the Hatirjheel intersection by going over the Karwan Bazar level crossing.
Opening the 450-metre section of the 8.7-kilometre flyover, Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain expressed the hope that it would help ease traffic congestion.
Expert critics, however, have always viewed that this portion would not bring any significant benefit due to various drawbacks -- one being that it touches down on the road before the Sonargaon hotel intersection and does not go over the critical junction.
The project director earlier reasoned that the stretch would come into conflict with the proposed metro rail if it goes past the hotel intersection.
The section cost Tk 85 crore, coming into being through a structural change in the Tk 1,219 crore-project, which comprises 50 ramps and stands on 311 single column piers along the central line of existing roads.
The first part of the flyover was inaugurated late March last year by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
It is a two-kilometre four-lane carriageway stretching from the Satrasta intersection (Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmad Avenue) up to Shaheed Captain Mansur Ali Avenue (Moghbazar) near Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College Hospital.
Another 2.25 kilometre section connecting Banglamotor and Mouchak was opened mid-September by Khandker.
The remaining under-construction Malibagh-Razarbagh-Shantinagar section is four kilometres long.
According to top officials of Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), the agency implementing the project, the flyover would help vehicles go over eight road intersections and three level crossings at Karwan Bazar, Moghbazar and Malibagh.
The project is jointly financed by Saudi Development Fund, OPEC Fund for International Development and the Bangladesh government.
LGED embarked on the flyover scheme in early 2013.
Comments