Monday, March 11, 2019

Dhaka - Cumilla - Chattogram Controlled Access Expressway


The government has taken a new project to build a six - lane expressway to improve road communication between the Port City Chittagong with Capital City Dhaka. The length of the Expressway will be around 218 kilometers which will be constructed next to the present Dhaka – Comilla - Chittagong national highway (N1). To construct this expressway, it will be necessary to shift various roads, institutions, offices and houses etc.

The Dhaka - Chittagong Six Lane Control Access Expressway project is going to implement soon. Prime Minister of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina's new government is giving priority to complete this mega project to speed up road communication with Chittagong.
The acquisition of land, utility re-settlement work proposal (DPP) will be approve soon. In July, the PPP authorities will call for the Request for Quotation (RFQ) to pick an investor. Existing four lane highway has been developed to improve connectivity to the port city Chittagong with capital Dhaka. But due to the faulty design, two-lane bridges and heavy traffic pressure, peoples are not getting relief from gridlocks, even transporting goods. At present due to up gradation of three bridges on this highway, gridlock getting intolerable. Vehicle pressure is increasing every day.




The up gradation of Dhaka - Chittagong four-lane highway was done by thinking the reality of running 17,000 vehicles per day. According to the survey of the Roads and Highways Department, the current rate of carriage growth in this route is 8 to 10 percent. As such, more than 17,000 numbers of vehicles will drive within two or three years on this highway.

According to a study by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), vehicle pressure on this road by 2020 to 2030 will increase to 66,000 daily. Then there will be deadlock everyday in the existing four lanes road. That’s why the government is giving priority to build a controlled access expressway in this route. Some mega projects, port facilities, economic zones are going to establish soon in Chittagong. So this type of expressway must be implemented.

If the expressway is constructed, the commercial communication with Chittagong to other cities of the country will be much easier and faster. It will only take two to three hours to go from Dhaka to Chittagong.

The construction work of the project was supposed to be started during the previous government period. But due to the acquisition of land with administrative approval and project implementation authority it was not possible to start. Last year the project was sent to the Ministry of Planning for approval of its DPP after taking a land acquisition project along with moving various utility services, electricity, telephone lines and houses. After completion, this will be the South Asia's largest expressway.
Before the project is approved, the district administration, forest department and environmental clearance are need. This project will be implemented through five districts and already NOC from four districts has been given except Chittagong. Apart from this, obtaining forest and environmental NOC is also under process. Soon these clearances will be sent with DPP to the Planning Ministry for land acquisition and utility re-settlement.

As well as beside approval of the land acquisition, the process of finding an investor for the main work of expressway is in progress. Earlier Asian Development Bank was interested in funding the project. But ADB has withdrawn from the loan process last year.

Later Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took the responsibility of implementing the project. The support to Dhaka-Chittagong Expressway project was sent to the PPP to carry out various tasks including the appointment of independent engineers for the assistance and supervision of the investors etc. And the PPP will call the RFQ to find interested investors for this mega project. A shortlist will be made after the verification of the offer of interested investors. From there, the final investor will be selected.

The feasibility study of the project was done once in 2004. But now the implementation of the project is not possible to complete based on that old feasibility study. For this reason, RFQ will be called after updating feasibility verification. This will be happen possible by July this year.




The length of the Control Access Expressway will be 217 kilometers and from this, 19 kilometer will be fully elevated. There will be a service road, seven interchanges, three service stations, 64 overpasses, 44 vehicle underpasses, four medium size bridges and 28 small bridges under the project. Earlier, the potential cost of the proposed project was estimated to 28,000 crore BD Taka. Of this, only the expenditure on land acquisition was estimated to be BD Taka 10,588 crores.

The project's duration was fixed from January 2018 to December 2022. Feasibility study will be revised and project construction cost will also be revised. The potential cost of the proposed expressway may be estimated to BD Taka 37,000 Crore. The cost of utility re-settlement with land acquisition may be BDT 17,000 Crore. The project-related people said that the cost of land acquisition will be more than previous. As a result, the DPP is finalizing based on the cost of land acquisition which may be around BD Taka 17,000 crore.
The project will be implemented in three packages. The first package will be from Kanchpur to Cumilla, 2nd package from Cumilla to Feni and the third package will be from Feni to Chattogram. This will be a fully control access expressway. The main road will be of four lanes, the remaining two sides will be use as service road, total six lanes. The local slow-speed vehicles and three wheelers will be able to use the service road. And with the control access roads of four lanes vehicles will be able to move at a minimum 100 kilometers speed per hour.

Vehicles will need to pay toll for using this expressway. On this route, vehicles will be able to go up and down in seven places. These places are: Madanpur of Narayanganj, Daudkandi of Cumilla, Mainamati and Paduar Bazar of Cumilla, Feni, Baroirhat and Salimpur of Chittagong. A control access expressway means that slow vehicles can’t enter. If the expressway is implemented in order to facilitate traffic movement without any traffic jam, then the dreams of Dhaka and Chittagong can be realized in two to two and a half hours.

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