Tussle with Hanif flyover likely to delay Elevated Expressway further

The planned construction of the Dhaka Elevated Expressway above the Mayor Mohammad Hanif Flyover has put the two large public-private partnership projects at odds, which could further push back the expressway’s completion by years.

The expressway’s work was scheduled to commence in 2011 and open to traffic in 2015. According to the latest official report, the progress accounts for only 30.5 per cent of the entire project.

Mayor Hanif flyover authorities said constructing the expressway above it would hamper traffic flow and they might be forced to close the flyover during the entirety of the construction.

Orion Infrastructure constructed the 11.7km flyover costing an estimated Tk 21.08 billion connecting Gulistan with Jatrabari. It has been collecting toll from the flyover since its inauguration in 2013. The construction work began in 2010.

Md Shahjahan Ali Patoary, vice-president of Orion Infrastructure, said they had an agreement with the Dhaka South City Corporation that no structure would be built on the flyover’s route that hampers traffic flow during the concession period.

He said Bangladesh Bridge Authority was implementing the expressway project on the same route without consulting them.

“The expressway authority is planning to construct the elevated route over the flyover, which will force us to shut traffic for years,” he said.

The flyover officials said their feasibility study had estimated 65,581 vehicles would use it daily and the government gave them a guarantee of 43,283 average daily traffic.

Although the structure was designed with a capacity of 96,000 vehicles daily, they were getting only 27,000 to 28,000 vehicles, officials claimed. 

Dhaka Elevated Expressway’s Project Director AHMS Akter disagreed. He said there would be no problem during the expressway’s construction on the flyover. 

“We will settle everything before starting the construction,” he told The Business Post.

DSCC superintending engineer Kazi Borhan Uddin, attached to the flyover’s maintenance, told The Business Post that the expressway project authority did not inform them anything about route alignment.

He hoped that the expressway authority would discuss details before starting construction as DSCC is the custodian of public roads.

“Once we get details, we will analyse it and make a decision,” he said.

The flyover authorities proposed connecting the expressway with the flyover at Golapgabh and Sayedabad points. Since the flyover already has two levels at the Sayedabad point, constructing the expressway above that point would make it risky. 

Connecting the expressway with the flyover at the two proposed points would bring down the construction cost and both parties could share profits but there are other issues such as the speed limit. The minimum speed limit on the expressway is 80km per hour.

But expressway project officials rejected the proposal, saying there was no scope to alter the design since they had already signed the agreement.

The four-lane flyover starts at Palashi near Gulistan Junction, while the 46.73km expressway begins at Dhaka airport. Both end at Kutubkhali point.

Buet’s civil engineering department Professor Shamsul Hoque told The Business Post that he had noticed the issue earlier.

He said that the two projects have different command areas. The expressway would serve the people headed to Uttara and other northern parts of the city while the flyover is for Gulistan and adjacent areas.

Hoque noted that the expressway might affect Sayedabad-centric traffic flow on the flyover. “The government should give priority to the public interest,” he said.

‘Expressway to open in 2023’

The construction of the 19.73km mainline expressway with 31 connecting ramps with a combined length of 27km started in 2011.

The construction of the mainline expressway has been divided into three phases – the first phase is 7.45km from Kawla (airport) to Banani; the second phase is 5.85km from Banani Rail Gate to Moghbazar and the third phase is 6.43km from Moghbazar to Kutubkhali.

The project is being implemented by First Dhaka Elevated Expressway (FDEE) Company Ltd. Italian Thai Development Public Company Ltd owns 51 per cent of FDEE while China Shandong International Economic and Technical Co-operation Group owns 34 per cent, and Sinohydro Corporation Ltd owns 15 per cent. 

China Exim Bank (EXIM) and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) are financing the mega project.

The government started the expressway project in 2011, around the same time as the Padma Bridge, and set 2015 as the deadline. But the construction did not begin for several years.

Project officials said they were working on completing the remaining 70 per cent works by July 2023 to open the country’s first-ever elevated expressway.