Tussle with Hanif flyover likely to delay Elevated Expressway in Dhaka further

by Rashad Ahamad

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.

Published on The Business Post

Dhaka Elevated Expressway taking shape after one decade

by Rashad Ahamad

The much-awaited Dhaka Elevated Expressway has become visible at Shahjalal International Airport point, 10 years after the project commenced to provide a solution to the escalating traffic pressure.

However, the progress accounts for only 30.5 per cent of the entire project, according to the latest official report.

Project officials said that they were working to complete the rest 70 per cent of the project by July 2023 to open the country’s first-ever elevated expressway.

Under a public-private partnership project, the construction of the 19.73km-long mainline elevated expressway has been divided into three phases – first phase is 7.45km from Kawla (airport) to Banani; second phase is 5.85km from Banani Rail Gate to Moghbazar and third phase is 6.43km from Moghbazar to Kutubkhali.

To ease traffic inside the capital, the total 46.73km-long expressway will have 31 connecting ramps with a combined length of 27km.

Out of 30.5 per cent total progress, the first phase is now at 66.25 per cent complete, second phase 21.5 per cent, and the third phase 2.33 per cent.

Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader announced that the 11km part of the expressway from the airport to Tejgaon would be inaugurated by December 2022.

Talking to The Business Post, transport experts said that it might be very challenging to complete the entire project by the July 2023 deadline, but the target was not unrealistic.

“The easiest part of the project was the first phase as the whole phase line over the rail line, the second phase is also on the rail line but some ramps of the phase have created complexity. But the third phase is the toughest part of the project because of land acquisition and alignment with Mayor Mohammad Hanif Flyover,” said Professor Shamsul Hoque of the civil engineering department of Buet.

He also suggested that project officials should identify and solve existing challenges as early as possible to speed up the project.

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

Project officials said that the contractor for the project could not start the construction due to funding issues and delay by the government in vacating the project area due to various reasons.

Dhaka Elevated Expressway Project Director AHMS Akter told The Business Post that although the project began in 2011, the formal construction commencement date was in January 2020.

In the last 10 years, the project period was extended four times and the cost also increased 1.5 times to Tk 8,940 crore.

Expressing hope that the project will be complete within the next two years, he said, “If the construction firm fails to complete the project on time, the cost will go up.”

He also informed that over 4,000 workers were engaged in construction work, even amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The contractor will get a total of 25 years, which includes 3.5 years of construction period, to collect toll from the expressway.

The expressway will connect the south and eastern districts of the country setting north-south connectivity and linking important commercial and business centres, including Gazipur and Ashulia.

The four-lane expressway will have a minimum speed of 80km per hour, enabling vehicles to reach the airport from Chattogram road in just 15 minutes, down from four hours during peak time at present.

Once completed, 80,000 vehicles are expected to use the overhead road daily.

However, Buet professor and transport expert Md Hadiuzzaman said the Elevated Expressway project might not be able to give people relief from traffic congestions, which was the main goal of the project.

He said that the ramps of the expressway would create bottlenecks at intersections creating more traffic congestion inside the city.

He also criticised the delayed implementation of the project and blamed faulty feasibility study for failing to identify the challenges properly.

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.

Published on The Business Post

Smart traffic signals a far cry in Dhaka

by Rashad Ahamad

Although more than 20 years has gone by, multiple attempts to control traffic using digital signal devices in Dhaka city have all ended in vain.

However, when it comes to government expenditure in this regard, the figure is pretty high. Some Tk 150 crore has already been spent under different projects centring automated traffic control.

Till now, the city’s massive traffic flow continues to be regulated manually by the traffic department of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

Not only does manually-regulated traffic control lead to massive gridlocks in the city almost every day, but also eats up valuable time of around 20 million city dwellers causing public suffering.

Between 2002 and 2005, a total of 68 traffic lights were set up at a cost of Tk 13.6 crore under the Dhaka Urban Transport Project funded by the WB. The first two sets of traffic lights were installed at Gulshan-1 and Gulshan -2 intersections.

However, in a 2006 report, the WB mentioned that the system went out of order due to lack of maintenance.

Again in 2017, a WB report mentioned that traffic congestion in Dhaka eats up 32 lakh working hours every day with an annual economic cost of Tk 20,000 crore.

Apart from that, these gridlocks also contribute to air pollution through vehicle emissions in the city.

According to a joint report in 2020 by US-based Health Effects Institute and Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Bangladesh saw a total of 173,500 deaths in 2019 due to air pollution, up from 123,000 in 2017.

Under the Clean Air and Sustainable Environment (CASE) project, that ended in March 2020, another Tk 112 crore, funded by the WB, were spent between 2010 and 2018 on repairing and installing 100 traffic lights and other intersection infrastructure. The city corporations handed the lights over to the Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

In the fiscal year 2012-13, under the CASE project, the two Dhaka city corporations developed and activated the signals, adding solar panels and countdown systems, at 70 crossings and 29 new signals.

However, officials of the just concluded CASE project said the signals went out of order within a few years due to lack of maintenance.

Dhaka’s already chaotic traffic took a critical turn this time after the government opened up businesses and public transport after withdrawal of lockdowns imposed to curb the spread of Covid-19.

“Dhaka has a very unhealthy environment due to huge traffic on roads,” Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon Joint Secretary Prof Ahmad Kamruzzaman Majumder.

Despite the chaos, Dhaka’s two city corporations, Dhaka Metropolitan Police, and Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority have been blaming each other for the failure to ease traffic congestions in the city, while urban planners find acute lack of coordination and accountability among the agencies concerned.

Talking to The Business Post, many city commuters said Dhaka’s traffic situation turned for the worse after several mega infrastructural development projects, including the Metrorail and Elevated Expressway, narrowed down major thoroughfares in the capital.

The narrowed roads added to the woes of Dhaka’s already chaotic manually-controlled traffic, causing more public suffering.

“Bangladesh police is now controlling Dhaka traffic ‘manually’ considering the practical situation,” said Dhaka Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner (Traffic) Md Munibur Rahman while talking to The Business Post.

He said there were no traffic lights installed at most of the intersections in the city while many of the traffic lights installed remain dysfunctional.

He added that traffic signal automation initiatives collapsed soon after its installation in 2019.

“Digital signalling is the only solution for managing any city’s traffic at the moment,” Bangladesh Institute of Planner’s General Secretary Adil Mohammad Khan told The Business Post.

Adil, also a professor for urban planning at Jahangirnagar University, also observed that the digital traffic signal system was not functional in the capital due to lack of accountability and coordination among the agencies concerned.

“Without political commitment it is not possible to ensure a functional digital traffic system even in future,” he said.

Meanwhile, remote controls, timer signal, 17 large and 14 small digital display boards were set up at key points by the city corporation authorities.

Against this backdrop, the DTCA also initiated the Dhaka Integrated Traffic Management Project, funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, in July 2015 to bring Dhaka’s four crossings — Paltan, Phulbari, Mohakhali and Gulshan-1 — under Intelligent Transportation System.

After four deadline extensions, the project was finally extended till June 2022 from the initial deadline of June 2017. The three extensions took the project cost to Tk 52.48 crore, up from the initial estimated cost of Tk 36.37 crore.

DTCA Additional Executive Director Mohammad Rabiul Alam, also the project director, said, “Dhaka WASA, city corporations and other agencies had damaged cables for installing ITS. Besides, a server computer was also stolen from its Hazaribagh office.”

The Detective Branch is now investigating the incident.

According to the DMP, around 4,000 police personnel are currently deployed only for traffic management in Dhaka city.

During visits across the city, a number of signal lights were seen damaged while few others found uprooted.

Officials said at least 28 signals have been shut, 25 removed due to various development works, 12 need maintenance, eight were out of order, four are partially active and 11 are active.

Supreme Court advocate and Road Safety Foundation Vice-President Jyotirmoy Barua said the government agencies, through many unacceptable excuses have kept the automated traffic signal system dysfunctional in the capital.

His contention was the police mainly kept it dysfunctional and controlled traffic manually, using hand gestures, to facilitate the VIPs.

Published on The Business Post