PM to open country’s first expressway to public tomorrow
The country's first-ever expressway from Dhaka to Faridpur's Bhanga upazila will be opened to public tomorrow, aiming to ensure better connectivity between the capital and southern districts through Padma Bridge.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the 55km four-lane highway, with a service lane on both sides, on the day through video conference from Gono Bhaban, officials said.
However, users will get full benefits of the expressway once construction work of Padma Bridge is completed, which is scheduled to be finished in June, 2021.
After that, those travelling by road from the capital will be able to reach Bhanga, which is a 75km journey, within an hour, officials said.
The project of Roads and Highways Department (RHD) was implemented by Bangladesh Army.
The government took the project to widen the 55km two-lane Dhaka-Bhanga road into four lanes in May 2016, with a budget of Tk 6,252 crore. The deadline for implementing the project was April 2019.
Later, the project was revised twice and total cost rose to Tk 11,003 crore – making it the most expensive road (considering per kilometre expenditure) in the country, officials said.
Work of a link road under the project is expected to be completed within June this year (the extended deadline).
An expressway is a highway especially planned for high-speed traffic, usually having no or fewer number of intersections, limited points of access or exit, and dividers between lanes for traffic moving in opposite directions.
RHD Additional Chief Engineer (Dhaka Zone) Sabuj Uddin Khan said they will start collecting toll from expressway users when Padma Bridge will be opened to public.
When asked about the toll amount, Sabuj said an RHD committee is currently working to fix the toll rate.
He said people will have to pay tolls for both the expressway and Padma Bridge, as the two structures are under separate authorities. The expressway is under RHD while Padma Bridge is under Bangladesh Bridge Authority.
PM TO INAUGURATE 25 BRIDGES AND ANOTHER ROAD
Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate 25 bridges in Khulna, Barishal and Gopalganj zones of RHD tomorrow.
The bridges were constructed under Western Bangladesh Bridge Improvement Project. A total of 82 bridges, including the 25, and approach roads would be constructed under the project at a cost of Tk 2911.75 crore.
Project Director Abdus Sabur said they were tasked to construct 61 bridges at first, and 21 bridges were added to the project last year.
Although construction of the 21 bridges has not started yet, they are hopeful about completing them within the extended deadline of June, 2022, Sabur said yesterday.
During the same programme, the PM will inaugurate the eight-kilometre approach road of Third Karnaphuli Bridge in Chattogram.
The six-lane approach road, which includes two side lanes, was constructed under a Tk 396 crore project, Abu Hena Md Tareq Iqbal, the project director, told this newspaper yesterday.
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