Dhaka north to get 36 new footbridges 

Thirty-six new footbridges will be constructed in the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) area while 16 escalators will be installed in eight existing footbridges, two in each, as part of a new development project. 

Of the footbridges, one will be built at Kuril, five at Uttara, one at Pallabi, six at Mirpur, four at Tejgaon-Mohakhali, two in Dhaka airport area, three at Gulshan, four at Badda-Rampura, one at Technical, one at Kachukhet, one on 60ft Road (Agargaon-Mirpur 2 link road), two at Shyamoli, and five at Mohammadpur.  

The eight existing footbridges that will get escalators are located at Kakoli, BAF Shaheen College, Shaheed Suhrawardy hospital, Adamjee Cantonment College, Combined Military Hospital, Shyamoli intersection, Mohakhali, and Pragati Sarani adjacent to East West University.  

At present, there are six escalators in three footbridges at Banani, Dhaka airport and Bashundhara.

In addition, 47 footbridges will be renovated under the Tk319.23-crore project aimed at improving traffic management of Dhaka north roads and easing pedestrian movement.

The project was approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) in late October last year, and Dhaka north city officials said work would begin this month and the project completion deadline is 31 December 2023.

Thirteen types of work will be done under the project and the highest amount of money will be spent on building new footbridges. 

Moreover, medians will be built on 7.74 kilometres of roads and grill fencing will be installed on sidewalks of 45.08 kilometres of roads.

Grill fencing will be installed to prevent people from crossing roads by walking. The Dhaka north authorities think people will then get accustomed to using footbridges. 

Md Selim Reza, chief executive officer of the DNCC, told The Business Standard work will begin as soon as the fund is disbursed. 

He said initial preparations have been taken. 

The project director would be appointed by this month, said DNCC Executive Engineer Md Farhad.

He said the tender process would begin in February this year if the fund is disbursed and fieldwork would start by June-July. 

The project also includes developing about 14 kilometres of main roads and 26 kilometres of footpaths, installing 1,710 traffic signs as well as constructing 6.58 kilometres of pipe drains and 9.05 kilometres of side drains for waste management development.