Vehicular movement begins at Dhaka Elevated Expressway
It takes only 10 to 12 minutes to reach Farmgate from the airport through the expressway
Authorities opened the airport to Farmgate portion of Dhaka Elevated Expressway for vehicular movement today (3 September) at 6am.
It takes only 10 to 12 minutes to reach Farmgate from the airport through the expressway.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the 22.5km stretch of Dhaka Elevated Expressway yesterday (2 September) at 3:30pm.
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She travelled on the expressway, making the first toll payment at the airport toll plaza.
Depending on the vehicles category, the government has fixed the toll rates on the Dhaka Elevated Expressway at a minimum of Tk80 to a maximum of Tk400.
In a public notice on Friday (2 September), Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA), the implementing agency of the infrastructure, banned two and three-wheeler vehicles at the expressway.
Moreover, parking, getting out of the vehicle, and standing on the elevated expressway to take pictures have also been announced as prohibited.
The notification also revealed the maximum speed limit on the main elevated expressway is 60km per hour, and the speed limit on the entrance and exit ramps is 40km per hour.
Back in January 2011, the Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) signed a deal with the Italian-Thai Development Public Company to build the country's first elevated expressway at a cost of Tk8,703 crore. It was revised in December 2013, and the cost stood at Tk8,940 crore.
Under the project, 31 ramps with a length of 27 kilometres will be constructed along with the 19.73-kilometre main road. In all, the length of the flyover will be 46.73 km.
The construction work was inaugurated twice – first in April 2011 for completion by mid-2014, and then in August 2015.
However, the formal construction commencement date is 1 January 2020, and a portion of the expressway – stretching from Dhaka airport to Moghbazar – was supposed to be opened by December 2020.
According to officials concerned, the project failed to meet the deadline mainly due to a crisis of funds of the private investor Italian-Thai, delays in handing over the project, and problems related to land acquisition.
However, the fund-related problem was resolved in 2020 after Italian-Thai handed over 49% of its share to two Chinese companies – China Shandong International Economic and Technical Corporation Group (34%) and Sinohydro Corporation Ltd (15%).
