Big boost for trade, travel

Conversion work of two major highways into dual carriageways is in the final stage and it will boost trade and travel in a major way. Travel times will be cut drastically once the work of broadening the highways, Dhaka-Chittagong and Dhaka-Mymensingh, is finished this June.

There have been delays stretching into years in the completion of the projects. Costs also went up considerably, but the works are expected to be completed by middle of this year.

The road transport and bridges ministry wants to officially open the four-lane highways in May but officials involved in the projects say that a month or two more would be required.

Expansion of the Dhaka-Chittagong highway would make traffic movement easier and faster and boost import-export and trade through the country's economic lifeline.

People are already benefiting from the widened parts of both the highways from shortened travel times, said engineers and experts.

Mir Mobasher Ali Swapan, managing director of Horizon Group that exports readymade garments to Canada, the USA and some European countries, is seeing faster shipment of his time sensitive products.

“Nowadays, I send my products to the Chittagong Port in five to six hours. It used to be 24-hours or more with the congested narrow highway,” he told The Daily Star.

“This gives us a huge advantage,” he added.

About 90 percent of the country's export-imports are done through the Chittagong Port. A majority of the goods are transported by the Dhaka-Chittagong highway.

Travelling on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway last week, The Daily Star reporter saw workers laying the surface and building the central reservation and overpasses at three level-crossings in Comilla, Feni and Chittagong.

All types of vehicles were using the newly constructed additional lanes of the widened highway.

Even though there were no tailbacks, vehicles had to stop or slow down at every bazaar, intersection, and stretches of the highway where the widening work was still going on.

Truck driver Abu Kalam, who was heading to Chittagong, told The Daily Star at Shahidnagar Bazar he would reach his destination in three hours. “Nowadays, if I start from Chittagong at 10:00pm, I can easily reach Dhaka before dawn.”

Workers were constructing a two-lane overpass at a level-crossing in Comilla. The job would be completed in eight to ten months, they said. Other adjacent two-lane overpasses would be completed by June.

“The first layer surfacing was completed a year ago while the second [final] layer has been done on about 100km so far,” said Aftab Uddin Khan, project director of Dhaka-Chittagong highway 4-lane project, adding that they were working to complete the job by June.

Widening of this key highway was delayed by at least three years, initially due to a crisis of soil for the earthwork and then because of problems with demolishing illegal structures.

A crisis in importing stones from India last year added to the delays.

However, the poor performance of the Chinese contractor Sino Hydro was the main reason for the delay, Roads and Highways Department officials said.

The company was under contract to widen 140km of the 192km highway but it had stopped the work complaining of losses. It resumed the work only after getting the river training job of the Padma Bridge project, according to sources.

DHAKA-MYMENSHINGH TRAVEL TIME CUT

The travel time has also gone down on Dhaka-Mymensingh highway even though some 11km in Bhaluka was yet to be converted to dual carriageway.

The expansion of the 87km road from Joydevpur to Mymensingh now allows a travel time of only one-and-half hours to Mymensingh after crossing the chaotic Joydevpur intersection.

Travelling down the highway last week, this reporter found the 12km stretch from Abdullahpur bridge to Joydevpur intersection was wide but chaotic, taking nearly an hour to cross.

However, it took only one hour and 45 minutes to reach Mymensingh, 87km away from Joydevpur intersection.

The contractor, Project Builders Ltd (PBL) and its partner China Major Bridge Engineering could not complete the widening of the 11km stretch, officials supervising the work said. The job was recently given to the army to complete.

Construction materials were piled up in the area and work will start soon, according to officials.

“We will try to complete the rest of the work by June,” Project Director of Dhaka-Mymensingh 4-lane Project Hafizur Rahman told The Daily Star.

In spite of the wider roads coming into service soon, both highways have the perennial problems of reckless driving, parked vehicles on the road, roadside bazaars, plying of slow-moving three wheelers and jaywalking.

The traffic chaos at the entries and exits of the highways around the capital might also hinder people from getting the full benefit of the four-lane highways, engineers and experts said.