Four megaprojects await opening

Four much-talked-about megaprojects set to open this year will revolutionise Bangladesh’s road communication and are expected to expedite the country’s march towards development.

They are — Bangladesh’s largest infrastructure project, Padma Multipurpose Bridge, the country’s first-ever Dhaka Elevated Expressway, MRT Line-6 or Metro Rail and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Tunnel under the Karnaphuli River in Chattogram.

Officials said the Padma Bridge would be opened in June while the Elevated Expressway and Karnaphuli Tunnel are scheduled for December inauguration. The Metro Rail will be opened on Victory Day.

Planning Minister MA Mannan on Tuesday said that the commissioning of the Padma Bridge, the Karnaphuli Tunnel and the Metro Rail would add 1.5 to 2 per cent growth to Bangladesh’s GDP.

Padma Bridge

Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said the Padma Bridge would be inaugurated in June according to the target. 

“The approach road has been completed. Now, the pitch-casting work is going on. Once it’s done, then the project will be ready for traffic,” he said.

Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) is implementing the bridge project with approach road. Bangladesh Railway is handling the rail line on the bridge under a separate project.

China Major Bridge Engineering Company (MBEC) is carrying out construction of the main bridge while Sino Hydro Corporation of China is taking care of river management, BBA officials said.

The cost of the fast-track 6.15-kilometre structure bridging Munshiganj’s Mawa with Shariatpur’s Janjira stands at Tk 30,193 crore. The largest bridge in Bangladesh connects the country’s southwest with northern and eastern regions. 

The project deadline was extended for the fifth time till June 2022.

Dhaka Elevated Expressway

After extending the deadline several times, the authorities concerned say they will open a portion of Dhaka

Elevated Expressway to the public in December.

In the first phase, the government will open the part from Kawla near the airport to Tejgaon Rail Station.

Quader said the whole project would be completed by June 2023.

Once fully completed, the 19.73km expressway stretching from Dhaka airport to Kutubkhali on the Dhaka-Chattogram Highway, with 27 ramps of around 27km, is expected to help people cross Dhaka without facing the traffic congestion within

the city. BBA signed a deal with Italian-Thai Development Public Company in January 2011 to build the expressway with Tk 8,703 crore.

Besides, the government is spending Tk 4,885 crore on land acquisition, resettlement and relocation of utility service lines, pushing the total cost to Tk 13,825 crore.

Metro Rail opens on Victory Day

Bangladesh’s first-ever metro rail will start commercial operation in the Uttara-Agargaon section on December 16, said MAN Siddique, Managing Director of the Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL), the implementing agency of the Mass Rapid Transit Line-6.

The metro rail authorities will start partial operation with 10 sets of metro trains. They are continuing trial runs on the viaduct. 

Siddique said the metro rail’s Agargaon-Motijheel section would come into operation in the second phase by December 2023.

The elevated rail line is being constructed between Uttara Sector-3 and Motijheel for around Tk 22,000 crore.

Once completed, it will be able to transport 60,000 people per hour and will cut travel time from Uttara to Motijheel to 40 minutes from about two hours.

Twenty-four trains will operate on the route once it’s fully functional.

Karnaphuli Tunnel

Harun or Rashid, Project Director of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Tunnel, said they have already completed 77.5 per cent of the construction work.

“We hope to complete the work by December to open it to traffic according to the plan,” he told The Business Post.

In November 2015, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council approved the project. It was scheduled to end in June 2020 and the estimated cost was Tk 8,446.63 crore.

However, construction started in December 2017. By this time, the authorities revised the expenditure to Tk 10,374 crore. Bangladesh and China jointly funded the project being implemented by the Bridge Division by China Communications Construction Company Limited.

The length of the main tunnel is 3.32km. Each of the 2.45km tubes has a 10.80-metre diameter and will have two lanes. There will be 5.35km of connecting roads at both ends of the tunnel. There will also be a 727-metre overbridge.