Commuting between Airport and Farmgate was as easy as never before as it took less than 15 minutes yesterday (Sunday) who took Dhaka Elevated Expressway on its first day in service after inauguration.
A total of 13,165 vehicles took the expressway till 7:00pm on Sunday paying Tk 11,08,240 as toll, authorities said. Of them, 7,748 vehicles took it from the airport end, 1,638 from Kuril, 1,438 from Banani and 2,341 from Tejgaon.
Vehicles were seen taking the 11.5km Airport-Farmgate stretch of the expressway. It takes about 10 minutes for a vehicle to reach Farmgate from Kawla with a speed up to 60 km per hour. However, commuters experienced traffic congestions at the landing points.
Officials said, on the first day mostly private cars used the expressway. The number of buses was nominal while a few covered vans availed the service.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) announced that their 79 buses will use the expressway from Monday. The state run transport agency took the decision to make passengers’ journey smooth, they said.
Md Tazul Islam, Chairman of BRTC said these buses will run on different routes from Gazipur via the Airport-Farmgate stretch of the expressway. The fare of the routes will be same as before.
“There is a plan to run AC buses in the future if passengers increase on that elevated expressway route,” he said.Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday (September 2) inaugurated the Airport-Farmgate segment of Dhaka Elevated Expressway after paying a Tk 2,000 toll for 25 vehicles in her motorcade.
Meanwhile, vehicles using the express way experienced traffic congestions at exit points.
Abu Saleh Md Raihan, joint commissioner of traffic (north) at DMP, said, “Traffic jam was seen at the landing points in Farmgate, Mohakhali, Kakoli, Kawla areas due to heavy pressure of vehicles that used the Dhaka Elevated Expressway. As today (Sunday) is the first day, commuters faced inconveniences.”
When fully completed, the Dhaka Elevated Expressway will run from the capital’s Kawla to Kutubkhali area of Dhaka-Chattogram highway via Kuril-Banani-Mohakhali-Tejgaon-Moghbazar-Kamalapur-Sayedabad-Jatrabari, according to Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader.
Tolls are being collected in four categories. Private cars, microbuses (16 seats) and mini-trucks (3 tonnes) will have to pay Tk 80, medium-sized trucks (up to 6 wheels) and large trucks with more than 6 wheels will pay Tk 320 and Tk 400 respectively.
Meanwhile, all buses and minibuses with 16 or more seats will have to pay Tk 160 to use the Kawla-Farmgate section of the expressway. Motorcycles, bicycles and three-wheelers are not allowed to ply the expressway.
