$45m French fund for Dhaka's transport project

France will provide $45 million for the construction of a 20-kilometre bus route between Gazipur and Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, for enhanced road connectivity.
The project will cost $255 million, of which the Asian Development Bank will provide $160 million and the Bangladesh government will provide the rest, according to Economic Relations Division (ERD).
Md Abul Kalam Azad, ERD secretary; Laurent Amar, deputy director of the Asia Department in Agence Francaise de Development of France; and Michel Trinquier, French ambassador, signed the deal yesterday at the auditorium of the National Economic Council in the capital.
Tender for the route's construction will be posted in the next six months, with works expected to start in 2014 and completed by March 2016, an ERD official told The Daily Star.
The project is aimed at establishing a disciplined, time-bound and safe bus service to ease public sufferings due to chaos, poor service and hazards in the conventional transport system.
The route is expected to carry 20,000 passengers per hour in one direction, with the study and design for another route stretching from the airport to Sadarghat is underway.