Obstacles were no match for country's development ambitions

Land acquisition disputes, common to all such projects, alone took two years to be cleared. Other major development works such as railway expansion and airport's new terminal also stood in the way. There were disputes among as many as 14 government agencies, repeated changes in designs and finally, financing issues — all contributing to delays and cost hikes. 

But these obstacles ultimately proved no match for the Dhaka Elevated Expressway, the country's first of its kind, set to open to traffic from the airport to Farmgate this month.

Had the work proceeded as per the original schedule, the inauguration, though partial, could have taken place nine years ago.   

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved, in principle, the construction of the Dhaka Elevated Expressway project on 25 July 2011. 

On 19 January 2011, the Bridges Division entered into a Tk8,700 crore agreement with the Italian-Thai Development Company Ltd for implementing the project. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also laid the foundation stone of the project on 30 April.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) also approved a separate project in 2011 at a cost of Tk3,217 crore from the government's own funding to complete the expressway work within three and a half years as per the agreement.

However, according to people with knowledge of the matter, the partial inauguration took an additional nine years mainly due to the lack of financial capacity of foreign partners, signing of contracts before preparation, complications in land acquisition, disputes with several government and autonomous institutions, including the Bangladesh Railway, over land use, changes in design and alignment of the expressway, lack of coordination among the departments concerned in implementation and inefficiency of the officials.

Sources related to the project said after the agreement with the private partner organisation, the work was stalled due to complications related to land acquisition for the first two years. As the project cost increased due to design changes and price inflation, a new contract had to be signed with the construction company in mid-2013. The cost of the project in this phase was estimated at Tk8,900 crore.

After the first contract was amended in 2013, the land survey started. Later, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader inaugurated the construction work in two phases on 30 October 2014 and 16 August 2015.

Obaidul Quader expressed hope of inaugurating the project by 2018 while inaugurating the last phase of test pile installation. On that occasion, he said, "The prime minister will inaugurate the Padma Bridge in 2018. At the same time, the work of this elevated expressway will also be completed. Hopefully, we can also inaugurate the expressway at the same time."

However, the construction continued at a slow pace due to design complications and the inability of the builders to raise the necessary funds.

Meanwhile, the elevated expressway project got complicated when the implementation of Bangladesh Railway's third and fourth dual-gauge railway lines along the Dhaka-Tongi route and a second dual-gauge line on the Tongi-Joydebpur route began. The railway started work on the Tongi-Joydebpur section of their project earlier.

The expressway project also faced complications when the construction of the third terminal of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport began.

In order to overcome the financial crisis, the two Chinese companies were given a 49% stake in the project, and the Italian-Thai Development Company kept a 51% stake for themselves.

Under the agreement signed on 25 February 2020, China Shandong International Economic and Technical Cooperation Group took a 35% stake and Sinohydro took a 14% stake.

The government provided 27% of the total cost of the project or Tk2,414 crore as Viability Gap Fund (VGF).

Apart from this, the Chinese consortium raised $861 million in loans including $461 million from the China Exim Bank and $400 million from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, which reduced financial complications.

Apart from funding issues, design complications arose with the placement of the expressway's ramp at Hatirjheel. The prime minister had instructed not to do this to protect this reservoir. New designs have been made accordingly.

Besides, a decision was made to extend the Sonargaon-Buet link of the expressway from Biam Bhavan at the southern end of Hatirjheel to Palashi intersection via Katabon through the southern end of Panthokunja Park in Karwan Bazar.

Claiming that this link is important for the project, the investors suggested setting up a total of seven ramps for the entry and exit of vehicles.

The project stakeholders said after various complications, the main construction work of the project officially started on 1 October 2018. Accordingly, the work of the first phase from Kawla to Banani was scheduled to end in 2019, the second phase from Banani to Moghbazar rail crossing in 2020 and the third phase up to Kutubkhali was scheduled to be completed in 2022.

In addition to the construction of the main infrastructure, the cost and duration of the supporting project, funded by the government, have also increased due to delays.

The cost of the project sanctioned in 2011 was estimated at Tk3,216.87 crore to complete the ancillary works of road construction including land acquisition, and relocation of infrastructure and utilities by 2014.

In the first phase, its expenditure was increased to Tk4,889 crore. The latest amendment has extended its duration till June 2024 and pegged the expenditure at Tk4,917.57 crore.

Hadiuzzaman, a civil engineering professor at Buet and transport expert, said the extra time wasted on projects under the Annual Development Programme (ADP) has become the biggest obstacle to infrastructure development in Bangladesh. To avoid such problems, projects are taken on a PPP basis. However, even though PPP projects are completed on time all over the world, it is taking longer in Bangladesh due to inefficiency.

"Mega planning is needed to implement mega projects. However, there was no effective planning in the entire process of this project. Temporary initiatives have been taken to deal with the problems arising at different times. That is why the project was not implemented on time," he said.

If a project is delayed, reaping the benefits becomes difficult, the expert said, adding that due to the lack of skilled people involved in our public transport sector, consultants and contractors increase the cost and time at their own convenience.

When asked, Md Monjur Hossain, executive director of the Bangladesh Bridge Authority and secretary of the Bridges Division, told The Business Standard, "Many things have been added to the project after the first agreement. The project design was changed several times. Besides, it took time to get investors' funds."

Apart from this, Bangladesh Railway, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk), two city corporations of Dhaka, the civil aviation authority and more than a dozen government and autonomous organisations as well as many approving authorities are also involved in land ownership. Coordination among all the agencies took a little extra time to move the project forward, he said.

Monjur Hossain, however, expressed satisfaction that the project was successful after facing all these challenges.