The much-awaited Bahaddarhat Flyover will be opened to traffic on October 12. Concerned authorities are expecting the flyover to reduce traffic congestion in the area significantly. However, experts and locals are doubtful about its benefits.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to inaugurate the 1.39km long flyover, stretching from Chittagong city’s Shulakbahar area to Ek Kilometre area, said Chief Engineer Nasir Uddin Mahamud Chowdhury of Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) to Dhaka Tribune.
Visiting the flyover on Wednesday, this correspondent found that the construction of the flyover was almost complete. Workers were busy finishing uncompleted tasks.
The flyover project was undertaken by the CDA with its own funds as a gateway for south Chittagong. The government approved the project on December 30, 2009. The prime minister laid the foundation stone of the project on January, 2010 and the construction work began in December that year.
The construction was supposed to be finished by February this year but work stopped for around seven months following a girder collapse in November last year that killed 14 people.
Mir Akhter-Parisha-Joint Venture (JV) was constructing the flyover at that point, but it was handed over to Bangladesh Army after the tragedy.
Project Director Brigadier General Shams Khan told the Dhaka Tribune that the flyover would be fit for traffic before October 12, while some other minor works would be completed by December.
The entire project is going to cost the CDA about Tk1.45bn.
CDA Chairman Abdus Salam told the Dhaka Tribune that the flyover would ease communication between south Chittagong and the port city.
Besides, traffic jam in the area would be reduced, he said.
Suvash Barua, the vice president of Forum for Planned Chittagong, also a former master planner for the CDA, told the Dhaka Tribune that the flyover would shift the traffic jam from Bahaddarhat to Ek Kilometre-Shah Amanat Bridge and other adjoining roads as those roads have only two lanes.
Local people would not be benefited by the flyover, he said.
Md Yunus, president of Bahaddarhat Traders Welfare Society, also echoed Suvash.
Jannatul Ferdous, a student of Government Haji Mohammad Mohsin College, said, “We (locals) will not be using the flyover, so if the road under the flyover and adjoining roads are not widened, our sufferings will remain the same.”
When asked about these concerns, the CDA chairman said Roads and Highway Department (RHD) had already gotten an approval to expand Ek Kilometre - Shah Amanat Bridge from two-lane to four-lane and the construction work was scheduled to start after the rainy season.
