First phase of elevated expressway by 2019

About 10 percent piling-work construction of the Dhaka Elevated Expressway have been completed so far since the much-awaited project started in August last year and the government hopes to complete the first phase by 2019.

Out of 810, construction of the 84 piles is completed, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said yesterday, while visiting the construction site in Kuril. 

The expressway will connect the northern and southern parts of the capital, linking Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport with Kutubkhali area on Dhaka-Chittagong highway via Mohakhali, Tejgaon, Sonargaon Hotel, Moghbazar, and Kamalapur.

The expressway, a Tk 8,900 crore project, under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with Bangkok-based Italthai group, will be built beside the existing rail-track from Airport to Kamalapur, resulting less traffic congestion, he added.

"It will be built in three phases- airport to Banani, Banani to Magbazar, and lastly Mogbazar to Kutubkhali…the length of it will be 46 kilometers, including the ramps," Quader said.

The minister said works to compensate those who were evicted during the construction of the expressway are about to be completed. Some 1,200 flats will be built and allocated among the affected people in Uttara.

Bridges Division Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam, its Chief Engineer Kabir Ahmed, Expressway Project Director Mohammad Ferdous, and BRTA Director Bijoy Bhushan Pal, among others, were present.