Purbachal Expressway won’t suffer much for metro rail: Secretary

There will not be much damage to almost completed Purbachal Expressway due to the construction work of Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Line-1, the country’s first-ever underground metro rail, authorities claimed.

In reply to the questions from journalists, Secretary of Road Transport & Highways Division ABM Amin Ullah Nuri said that some problems may arise in any construction work, but Purbachal 300-feet road (Purbachal Expressway) will not be affected much for the construction of metro rail.

“For example, when we implement a project, we acquire land, buildings, houses, destroy them and we compensate the owners. Before that we study how much damage will happen. But for this project, there will not be much damage to the 300-feet road. There will be a little damage,” he explains.

He was talking with journalists after a seminar on MRT Line-5 Southern Route organised at Hotel Intercontinental in the capital on Sunday.

The secretary said that during the construction work, there might be a minor traffic disruption in Purbachal section. There will be barricade, traffic diversion, and demolition of a portion of road islands.

“You will see that Rajuk has installed lights on both sides of the 300-feet road. But lights are not installed in the middle of the road. Now the question can arise why the lights are not installed? Because, the metro rail line will pass through the middle and we have coordinated with them not to do that,” he added.

Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) is implementing the project of 13-km expressway from Kuril to Kanchan Bridge at a cost of Tk 10,329 crore. The work which started in 2015 was almost completed in December 2022 on schedule. The project is expected to be inaugurated this year.

In this situation, the work of the country’s first underground metro rail started.

Different news outlets have reported that a part of the Kuril-Kanchan Bridge Expressway is going to be demolished for the work of the metro rail project as Rajuk could not coordinate well with the metro rail authorities.