Dhaka-Sylhet highway: Tk 17,000cr project falls short on road safety

• With only 13 underpasses and overpasses for 209 km highway, existing plan compromises safety and speed, audit finds 
• It recommends 57 additional underpasses and overpasses, 78 pedestrian underpasses, 74 footbridges

Road safety and speed will remain compromised on the Dhaka-Sylhet highway even after the completion of its ongoing Tk 17,000 crore expansion, a recent audit report warns.

Inadequate overpasses, underpasses, and pedestrian facilities will hinder road safety, preventing the mega project from achieving its intended purpose, according to the report.

It recommended constructing 57 additional underpasses and overpasses, 78 pedestrian underpasses, and 74 footbridges with ramps, among other infrastructure.

This will raise the project cost by Tk 3,500 crore.

The findings came four years after the approval of the project to upgrade the highway into a four-lane one with service lanes on both sides. Under the existing plan, only 13 overpasses or underpasses will be built on the 209 km-long national highway.

Although the project's current deadline is December 2026, it has achieved only 13 percent progress, mainly due to land unavailability, making a timely completion highly unlikely.

If the recommended infrastructure is added, the implementation period may also increase along with the cost.

The Road Transport and Highways Division held a meeting with stakeholders earlier this month after project consultants presented recommendations to enhance road safety measures.

Chaired by Mohammed Ziaul Haque, an additional secretary at the division, the meeting recommended implementing the proposed measures to ensure that road safety is not compromised, according to the meeting minutes.

When contacted, AKM Fazlul Karim, project director of the SASEC Dhaka-Sylhet Corridor Road Investment Project, said the project authorities would present the stakeholders' recommendations to the Project Steering Committee at a meeting expected after Eid. If the committee agrees, they will submit a revised development project proposal.

The Dhaka-Sylhet highway is one of the most accident-prone roads in the country. According to police reports, more than 400 people have been killed in 358 road crashes on the highway over the past five years.

SAFETY, SPEED

Consultants hired by the Roads and Highways Department in 2014-15 carried out a feasibility study and developed the detailed design for the project. This was reviewed in 2020 following a recommendation from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the project's financer.

At that time, the project cost was estimated at Tk 20,300 crore, according to the meeting minutes shared by Project Director Fazlul at the stakeholders' meeting.

However, to reduce costs, 22 overpasses and 27 underpasses were removed from the original design, making the road riskier. The move would also prevent traffic from reaching the expected speed.

The loan ceiling set by the ADB was one of the reasons for the removal of the overpasses and underpasses, Fazlul told this correspondent yesterday.

He informed the meeting that a consultancy firm had been hired to assess the impact of removing the overpasses and underpasses, along with related safety issues, and it recently submitted the road safety audit report.

While it was expected that the divided carriageway and service lanes would reduce head-on collisions, the safety auditors identified several factors contributing to road accidents.

According to the audit report, at-grade U-turns, roundabouts at major intersections, U-turns for both fast and slow-moving vehicles on the main carriageway, and the absence of adequate pedestrian facilities will make the highway more accident-prone.

There are many elements, including 88 educational institutions, 204 industries, 51 marketplaces, 28 intersections, 652 branch roads, 10 hospitals and 28 filling stations, which made the highway more vulnerable to accidents, Fazlul said.

Considering all these aspects, the consultants recommended building 11 overpasses, 17 all-vehicular underpasses, 29 light vehicular underpasses, 78 pedestrian underpasses, 12 cattle underpasses, among other infrastructure, he said.

If the amount for the additional infrastructure is added to the existing cost of Tk 16,918.58 crore, the project cost will increase to Tk 20,418.58 crore.

DEADLINE

In the last four years, the project authorities hired contractors for all 13 packages, but it has seen only 13 percent progress.

When asked about the reasons behind the delay in implementation, Project Director Fazlul blamed the unavailability of land as the primary cause.

The Roads and Highways Department is implementing a separate project to acquire 1,034 acres of land, of which 829.83 acres are for the highway expansion. The department, however, missed the deadline for this land acquisition twice.

So far, the project authority has received only 12 percent of the required land, sources said.

Asked if adding new infrastructure to the highway expansion project would further delay it, Fazlul said they would need around three more years to implement the project under its current plan due to the delay in acquiring land.

However, he added, if the government approved the new plan as quickly as possible, the construction of the new infrastructure could also be completed within the extended timeline.

'LESSONS NOT LEARNT'

A project official said when the underpasses and overpasses were dropped from the plan, it was acknowledged that these would ultimately need to be constructed at the intersections to prevent traffic congestion and ensure road safety in the future.

"We now have to spend approximately Tk 21 crore on consultancy services for value engineering in road safety, which could have been significantly minimised if the consultant's recommendations during the feasibility study stage had been incorporated into the Development Project Proposal," he said, requesting anonymity.

He also said more overpasses and underpasses had to be added during the implementation of the SASEC-1 and SASEC-2 projects to expand the highway from Gazipur to Rangpur via Tangail, resulting in an extension of the deadline and rise in cost.

"We should have learnt lessons from the past," he added.