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The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has stepped in to ease gridlock at toll plazas of Padma Bridge, Expressway and Hanif Flyover.
The PMO decided to form a technical committee to find a solution to the problem.
The PMO held a consultation meeting with the top officials of Road Transport and Highways Division, Bridges Division, Roads and Highways Department, Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA), the operator of the Mayor Hanif flyover - Orion Group - on Sunday to discuss the issues.
Meeting attendees says the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is concerned over the gridlocks and discussed with the officials to find out the ways including easing toll collection process so that the collection takes less time and vehicles do not need to wait in queues for long.
The meeting was told that a technical committee would be formed comprising experts from the government and non-government stakeholders, Md Sabuj Uddin Khan, Additional Chief Engineer (Dhaka Zone) of RHD, who attended the meeting, confirmed The Business Post.
The committee will submit a set of recommendations to the PMO and the next steps will be taken after scrutinizing them, he added.
The PMO officials, however, did not tell the meeting about the timeframe for the formation of the committee.
A meeting attendee said they also discussed the possibility of fixing the tolls of the bridge, expressway and flyover in round figure so that toll collectors can return changes faster.
Since the opening of Padma Bridge, entry to Jatrabari as well as toll plazas on the Dhaka-Mawa-Bhanga Expressway and Padma Bridge have witnessed regular traffic congestions.
The situation worsened during the Eid holidays as the pressure of vehicles increased and manual toll collections at the bridge and the Dhaka-Mawa-Bhanga Expressway was time consuming.
On the other hand, the flyover has only three toll collection booths against the minimum requirements of nine that failed to deliver quick service when vehicles reached the entry points.
