Mouchak-Moghbazar flyover opens to public early Oct
With the 4km Malibagh-Razarbagh-Shantinagar stretch ready for traffic, the widely-criticised 8.7km Mouchak-Moghbazar flyover is set to completely open for public use by early next month, said an official.
“With all the components ready, our aim is to open the remaining four-km stretch of the flyover sometime in the first week of October after the prime minister returns home,” said Sushanto Kumar Biswas, the flyover project director yesterday.
In late March last year, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the first 2km section of the flyover.
It stretches from Shaheed Captain Mansur Ali Avenue (Moghbazar) near Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College Hospital to Satrasta intersection (Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmad Avenue).
Later in mid-September last year, the local government minister opened another 2.25km section of the flyover connecting Banglamotor and Mouchak though officials pledged this section by June.
The Malibagh-Razarbagh-Shantinagar section was supposed to be opened by early this year with the project completion deadline by this June.
Meantime, the flyover was extended by 450 meters at a cost of Tk 85 crore over Karwan Bazar level crossing drawing experts' criticism that it would only add to traffic mess near Sonargaon hotel. Hasina inaugurated the flyover construction in February 2013.
The Local Government Engineering Division embarked on the flyover scheme in early 2013 amid raging controversy with a 2005 layout configuration ignoring mandatory approval of Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority.
The Tk 1,219 crore flyover project has 50 ramps and is built on 311 single-piers along the central line of the existing roads.
According to top LGED officials, the flyover would help pass the vehicular movement on eight intersections and three level crossings -- Karwan Bazar, Moghbazar and Malibagh.
Transport experts, however, criticised time and again that it would facilitate only as an overpass across the railway level crossing and road intersections for a portion of the existing traffic volume, as there is no provision for right turning.
Originally, the project was scheduled to start in 2011 and be completed by December 2015 but it started in 2013.
Later in January 2015, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council approved a revision of the project with an extension of 18 months till June 2017 and an increase in cost of Tk 446.20 crore. The scheme is financed jointly by Saudi Development Fund, OPEC Fund for International Development and Bangladesh government.
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