The cabinet yesterday approved the route for the Dhaka Elevated Expressway that would run 21km from Shahjalal International Airport to Demra via Mohakhali, Tejgaon, Moghbazar, and complete within December 2013.

At a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the cabinet reviewed a report prepared by the project's Australian consultant Aecom and approved one of the five route options in line with the consultant's recommendation.

The consultant examined five route options and recommended the fifth option that suggested building the four-lane express carriageway mainly using land owned by the government, mostly Bangladesh Railway's land. There will be minimal need to acquire fresh land for the expressway that offers possible scope for expansion to Ramna and Mirpur in the future.

This route would save at least an hour's travel time between the airport and Demra and it will serve majority of central Dhaka traffic and provide immediate relief from congestion as it will have entry and exit ramps at several places.

The consultant, however, identified five projects that would be affected by the expressway. It asked to keep in mind Malibagh to Janapath Highway, Moghbazar-Mouchak Flyover, Tejgaon Sat Rasta Crossing to Moghbazar, Banani Rail Crossing-Zia Colony-Mirpur and Kuril Flyover projects during the construction of the expressway.

Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain told The Daily Star that the expressway was primarily estimated to cost $2.5 billion.

"The government will give the land, facilities and some part of the fund. The contractor will have to invest for the construction," he said, adding that the best bidder will have to give the most attractive offer on the expressway toll, the best engineering solutions and in how many years would the contractor (who would operate the expressway) handover the project to the government will be considered.

"We have all documents ready for this project. We hope to sign the agreement with the best bidder by December 2010 so that we can start the construction early next year. We hope it will end by December 2013," the minister said, adding that this would drastically reduce traffic jam in the city.

Within this week, the Bridge Division of the communications ministry will ask four pre-qualified companies to submit their proposals. These companies are: Italian-Thai Development Public Company (Thailand), Sikder Real Estate-KCC JV (Bangladesh-Korea), Gammon Infrastructure Projects Ltd-Bouygus Travaux Publics SA Consortium (India-France) and China Railway International (China).

At yesterday's meeting, it was disclosed that Japan would provide $1.7 billion for constructing the first part of the proposed metro railway in Dhaka. This would be finalised early next year during a visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to Japan, a cabinet member told The Daily Star.

The prime minister rejected a World Bank suggestion to raise the toll fee of Bangabandhu Multipurpose Bridge. The bank said otherwise, it would not provide support for the upcoming Padma Bridge.

Hasina told the meeting that Bangladesh paid the bank interest for taking loans. Why should the country listen to such odd suggestions when the people are already paying high toll considering Bangladesh's perspective, she said. If such suggestions are implemented, it will increase prices of commodities, she said.

THE EXPRESSWAY ROUTE
This option chosen for the expressway will follow the rail alignment with piers offset from the railway. This is subject to negotiations between Bangladesh Railway, Bangladesh Bridge Authority and the bidders, depending on the engineering solutions proposed by each bidder. Should land not be available adjacent to the railway alignment, then the route would follow the central reservation of roads.

At Mohakhali Flyover, the expressway would run along the central reservation of Shaheed Tajuddin Road through Tejgaon industrial area. The expressway would rejoin the rail corridor through Moghbazar to then join up with Syedabad Road.

Along Syedabad Road, the expressway would be located between the road and the rail corridor; reducing the interaction with the Khilgaon flyover.

The expressway could then continue along the rail corridor to the Kamalapur Railway Station and container terminal. South of Kamalapur Station, the expressway curves to the east passing south of Kamalapur Stadium. The route then passes through the water catchments and Syedabad Water Treatment Plant, turns south and connects with Dhaka-Chittagong Highway.

While this expressway route would not link places like Dhanmondi or Mohammadpur, it proposes two additional extensions. The first one is a 1.8km long extension through Tejgaon industrial area to Farmgate. The second one is 3.4km long expansion starting near Panthapath and traversing the water catchments south of Hotel Sonargaon, then following the Sonargaon Road from New Eskaton Road to Buet.

The study identified potential interchanges in the following locations:

1. Kuril Flyover at the intersection of Airport Road to provide access to Airport Road southbound.

2. Cantonment overpass over Airport Road near railway crossing.

3. Banani, south of Kamal Ataturk Avenue and north of Mohakhali Flyover to give access to and from Gulshan and Mohakhali.

4. Panthapath to provide access to and from Ramna, Tejgaon and Shaheed Tajuddin Road.

5. Kamalapur Railway Station south of the Khilgaon Flyover to provide access to and from Paltan and Motijheel.

A major advantage of this route would be minimal disruption to traffic during the construction period as it mainly uses the rail alignment.

But there will be significant disruption to traffic during the construction period along Shaheed Tajuddin Road and possibly Airport Road. The southern end of the Expressway from Kamalapur to Dhaka-Chittagong Highway will require significant land acquisition.

The project would, however, impact link projects like Zia Colony to Mirpur Road, Bijoy Sarani-Shaheed Tajuddin Road, Mirpur-14 to New Airport Road, Jatrabari Bridge-Polder Road, Jatrabari-Demra Ghat, FDC Level Crossing to Hatirjheel, and Malibagh Level Crossing.

Due to contractual inflexibility of the public-private partnership approach, other projects would be denied the use of the corridor occupied by the expressway and this would impact implementation of the upcoming Mass Rapid Transit System.

Utilising the rail corridor could potentially require some buildings to be demolished. There are some very narrow clearances along Syedabad Road and Khilgaon.

The cabinet committee on economic affairs on June 17 last year approved the project. To implement the project on a fast track, the project was given exemption from various procedures of the Bangladesh Private Sector Infrastructure Guidelines on October 20 last year and the Bridges Division was assigned to directly process pre-qualification of investors.

On March 4, nine local and foreign investors submitted pre-qualification documents out of which a seven-member specialist committee led by Prof Jamilur Reza Chowdhury pre-qualified four investors in April.

On April 18, the authorities appointed Aecom Australia Proprietary Ltd as a consultant to advise on preparing the project's tender document, draft agreement and route.

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