4 Mega Infrastructures: Target next year for completion

Four mega projects, including the Padma Bridge and Dhaka Metro Rail, will be completed by June next year, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said yesterday.

The other two projects are Dhaka Elevated Expressway and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Tunnel under the Karnaphuli River in Chattogram.

"We will open all these [four] by June next year," Quader said at a press conference at his Secretariat office.

The work in these mage projects has gathered pace and is progressing very fast, he noted.

"We will be able to inaugurate all these projects next year and we are working hard, keeping that target in mind."

Once implemented, these projects are expected to bring a huge change in the country's road connectivity and public transportation.

The Padma Multipurpose Bridge and the Metro Rail also known as Mass Rapid Transit Line-6 are among the fast track projects of the government.

The bridge project saw major progress last month after all 41 spans of the bridge were installed linking the two sides of the mighty Padma.

The 6.15km bridge will connect the capital with 21 south-western districts, and is expected to boost the country's gross domestic product by 1.2 percent.

Following several revisions of cost and deadline, the project cost rose to Tk 30,193 crore and the deadline of June 2021 was fixed. But project officials say it will not be possible to meet the deadline as the work was severely hampered due to the pandemic and strong currents in the river for four months.

After the last span was installed on December 10 last year, Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam, who served as Bridge Division secretary for eight years, said the bridge would be open by June, 2022.

METRO RAIL

The overall physical progress of the MRT line-6, the first-ever metro rail project in the country, was 53.58 percent till November last year. 

The first phase -- Uttara to Agargaon -- saw 77.57 percent progress and the second phase -- Agargaon to Motijheel -- 47.49 percent progress, according to the project documents.

The 20.10km line, which will connect Uttara with Motijheel by an elevated track, is being set up at a cost of Tk 22,000 crore. Once in operation, it will carry 60,000 passengers per hour and reduce travel time to 36 minutes from at least two hours.

Initially, its implementation period was 2012-2024.

But Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had directed that the line from Uttara to Agargaon be made operational by 2019 and that from Agargaon to Motijheel by 2020.

Failing to achieve the target, the authorities in May 2019 announced that "early commissioning" of the project would be made on December 16 this year, when the country celebrates the golden jubilee of its independence.

Asked about this, Quader said, "I will extend the deadline a little bit… we will open all four projects, including the Metro Rail, by June next year."

BANGABANDHU TUNNEL

The project witnessed 62 percent progress till December last year.

The boring of the first tube has already been completed. And Quader on December 12 last year inaugurated the boring of the second tube.

The 9.1km-long tunnel, the first of its kind in South Asia, is being built at a cost of Tk 10,400 crore. It will help develop a modern communication system between Dhaka, Chattogram and Cox's Bazar, and also be linked to the Asian Highway.

Bridges Division Secretary Belayet Hossain, also executive director of Bangladesh Bridge Authority which is implementing the project, said the deadline for finishing the project is December next year.

"However, we are hopeful about opening the tunnel before the deadline," he told this newspaper last night.

ELEVATED EXPRESSWAY

After years of sluggishness, the work of the first Dhaka Elevated Expressway has gained momentum, as the problem of funding the much-anticipated project was solved early last year.

The project is being implemented under public-private partnership model.

Bangladesh Bridge Authority signed a Tk 8,703 crore deal with Italian-Thai Development Public Company in January 2011 to build the 47km expressway, with 19.73km main line from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to Kutubkhali.

The deal was revised and signed again in December 2013, with the cost revised at Tk 8,940 crore. Several changes were made in the design.

Besides, the government has to spend Tk 4,885 crore on land acquisition, resettlement and relocation of utility service lines, raising the total cost of the project to Tk 13,825 crore.

Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, Project Director AHMS Aktar said they expect to complete the work of the stretch from the Dhaka airport to Tejgaon rail gate by December this year.

"We will then start partial operation," he said, adding that the work of the entire project would be completed by June 2023.

The project witnessed 22 percent progress till December, added Aktar.

Vehicles have to pay toll to use the elevated expressway, which will allow those to avoid the city's traffic jam.