The government’s lengthiest project

Imagine travelling from Motijheel to Uttara in 20 minutes in peak rush hour. Sounds like a dream. 

But, that would have been a reality by now had the Dhaka Elevated Expressway, the country’s maiden public-private partnership project, stuck to its time frame. 

The project, which was flagged off in 2011 with a budget of Tk 8,703 crore for completion in 2015, was conceived around the same time as the Padma Bridge. 

With a total length of 46.73km, including 19.73km mainline, the expressway aimed to provide a release valve for the escalating pressure on the streets below. With five interchanges, two end ramps and two elevated links, the toll-road would rise above the city, improving north-south connectivity and linking important commercial and business centres. 

The Padma Bridge will be open for public in June next year, but the much-needed expressway is nowhere near completion.

In 2013, datelines were shifted and project cost revised upwards to Tk 8,920.2 crore. The new deadline was 2021, but for the pandemic, it was pushed to the end of 2022, making it the most protracted project of the government.

Even that seems far-fetched seeing that only 30 per cent of the 20-km expressway, stretching from the Hazrat Shahjalal International airport to Kutubkhal point on the Chittagong road, has been completed so far. 

The government has set a target of opening half of the expressway (Airport-Tejgaon Railway station) by end of this year. And project officials claim 60 per cent of that portion has been done.

The reason for the delay in materializing the four-lane dual carriageway is primarily its contractor.

The project was thrown into uncertainty after its contractor -- the Italian-Thai Development Public Company Limited -- failed to manage funds and begin construction after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated it in April 2011.

In August 2014, Ital-Thai signed an agreement with a Chinese firm to manage funds, but the move resulted in no quick solution.

The government too faced hurdles to acquire land and remove private structures along the expressway route --Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, Kuril, Banani, Mohakhali, Tejgaon, Moghbazar, Kamalapur, Sayedabad, Jatrabari-Kutub Khali. 

There were also modifications in its routes, all of which delayed the project by seven years. 

By the time, the contractor and the government had a revised deal to construct the expressway. 

And it was not until the end of 2019 the contractor managed substantial funds and began works in full swing. 

However, Ital-Thai did some construction works with money from its own pockets. Which is why some pillars were visible.

“We have set the new target for opening the proposed part by December 2021,” said AHM Shakhawat Akhtar, project director, adding that construction work will get momentum as all the hurdles are gone.

Shamsul Hoque, a professor of BUET’s civil department, who is a member of the project’s expert panel, found the target to be ambitious. 

“Construction works will be comparatively slower between Banani and Tejgaon as the area is congested,” he told Dhaka Tribune.