Consultants are now facing difficulties in finding the best possible route for the Dhaka-Chittagong Expressway out of the government's three proposed options.
The consultants have recommended conducting a study with another option.
They are also facing a challenge to make the Dhaka- Chittagong Expressway project attractive to the private sector as per the government's mission to implement it under the public-private partnership (PPP) initiative.
They shared their views in its inception report recently. The report was prepared to start different studies for finding an acceptable route for the first-ever expressway.
The government has given priority to a speedy highway to meet the country's growing demand for road infrastructures between the capital Dhaka and port city Chittagong due to increase in trade and business volume.
SMEC International Pvt Ltd of Australia, having joint venture with Oriental Consultants Co Ltd of Japan, has been assigned to find the best route for the expressway. Castalia Ltd of New Zealand and ACE Consultants Ltd of Bangladesh are also assisting them.
Officials said in the technical concept paper, four options have been proposed for the expressway - either elevated or at grade way with the existing Dhaka-Chittagong corridor or finding a new route with elevated or at grade way.
The consultants, however, have proposed to use mixed options with both elevated and grade ways to find best alignment for the expressway considering trade and business opportunities of the district areas remaining along the corridor, they said.
The issue of benefiting the country has become urgent following its connectivity with different international forums including the Asian Highway, the BCIM economic corridor and the BIMSTEC.
Earlier in 2007, a study recommended three routes for establishing the Dhaka-Chittagong Expressway. Of these, one was proposed to be constructed parallel to the existing Dhaka-Chittagong highway and another through Daudkandi-Hasnabad-Feni-Rampur route to reach Chittagong to cut the mileage by 15 kilometres. The third proposed route was Dhaka-Narayanganj-Munsiganj-Chandpur-Laxmipur-Feni-Raipura-Chittagong.
Officials said all the three routes were later rejected as it would be difficult to acquire a large area along the existing Dhaka-Chittagong corridor and for bypassing Comilla.
The expressway has been designed on the country's economic corridor to enable all kinds of transport to cross uninterrupted and in 100 kilometre per hour speed. This will have limited access to the areas along the corridor.
Consultants said as the expressway itself is a costly construction, they are trying to find the route which is not only attractive but also less expensive to make the project viable under PPP.
The consultants' inception report was shared during a workshop where they highlighted that they would conduct three kinds of studies as an earlier study was not conducted from the PPP point of view. The studies are necessary to make the project viable under the PPP.
After the earlier study, the government had tried to begin the Dhaka-Chittagong expressway project inviting international companies in 2010 but it could not get any response.
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