Dhaka bypass expressway to open partly on 1 May

The 48-kilometre Dhaka bypass expressway is set to open partly on 1 May to facilitate smoother operation for buses, trucks, and other vehicles from northern and western regions to southern and eastern regions.

"The entire bypass expressway will be opened for traffic in July next year, as 68 percent of development work has already been completed. The rest of the work is going on in full swing," Syed Aslam Ali, project director, Dhaka Bypass Development Project, told BSS today (8 April).

He said out of the total 48km expressway, 20km from Bhogla to Purbachal is now completed, while 28km is now under development, adding, "We have temporarily opened 20km expressway for traffic on the occasion of the Eid-ul-Fitr to ensure smooth travel of the people." 

He said the four-lane bypass expressway is a strategic corridor for freight movement linking the manufacturing centre in the northern Dhaka with the centre of shipping activity at the port of Chattogram in the south.

"But the development work was delayed one year due to a long process for land acquisition. We will construct an interchange (intercrossing) having the modern facility to enter Purbachal and exit from the expressway," the project director said.

He said per truck and car will pay around Tk1,400-Tk1,500 and Tk700-Tk800 as tools respectively by using the bypass expressway from Bhogla to Madanpur.

According to the project details, the Dhaka Bypass Expressway is being constructed with semi-rigid pavement technology, where no bricks are used. As a result, it will be more durable than the conventional asphalt road and the maintenance cost will be relatively lower. 

The bypass expressway development work started in 2021, which was scheduled to open for traffic officially in July 2025.

It said the bypass expressway project was taken under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) method with Tk3,400 crore as the estimated cost. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is serving as the financial adviser for this project.

According to Bangladesh Infrastructure Finance Fund Limited (BIFFL), consortium of Sichuan Road and Bridge (Group) Corporation Limited (SRBG), Shamim Enterprise (Pvt.) Limited (SEL) and UDC Construction Limited (UDC) are implementing the project.

Shamim Enterprise Private Ltd and UDC Construction Limited have 30% share, while SRBG has 70% share of the bypass expressway, it added.

The PPP contract of the project was signed on 6 December 2018 between the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) under the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges and the consortium, it said.

The BIFFL said the project includes six new bridges for the mainline and service lanes, eight new mainline overpasses, 46 existing box culverts and lengthened box culverts, 49 new culverts, 12 new channels and eight pedestrian overpasses. The bypass expressway will connect the ongoing SASEC road connectivity project.

The project details said once the expressway is fully operational, vehicles from North Bengal will be able to go directly to Chattogram and Sylhet regions without entering the capital.

The bypass project involves transforming the existing two-lane road into a four-lane expressway with additional service lanes on both sides, it added. 

Travel time along this entire road, which previously took two hours, will be reduced to just half an hour, the project director stated.