After missing three deadlines, the construction of the first phase of Dhaka elevated expressway will begin today.
Road Transport and Bridges Ministry’s Public Relations Officer Abu Naser said the minister, Obaidul Quader, would open the construction in the capital’s Kawla at 11am.
The project missed three deadlines because of fund crisis, wrong design and land acquisition difficulties.
According to Bangladesh Bridge Authority, elevated expressway construction was scheduled to begin in December 2011 but was delayed for over three years due to lack of funding.
On April 1 this year, Obaidul Quader said construction would begin on June 1 but it will start today.
Kazi Muhammad Ferdous, director of the project, said all the problems over the start of the structure’s construction had been solved.
“Now the challenge is to complete work by 2018 according to the schedule,” he said.
The expressway starts at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport and runs along New Airport Road via Mohakhali, Tejgaon and Moghbazar to Kamalapur Railway Station before connecting with Dhaka-Chittagong highway via Sayedabad and Jatrabari.
It measures 20 kilometres in straight length but the total length is 47 kilometres, including 27km ramps.
In January 2011, the government signed an agreement with a Bangkok-based firm to build the four-lane expressway at a cost of Tk8,703 crore under the public-private partnership scheme.
The deal was later revised and a fresh one was inked on December 15, 2013.
