Deal signed for feasibility study

The feasibility study to select a suitable route for Dhaka-Chittagong expressway under the public-private-partnership (PPP) will start soon for establishing a high-speed road connection to accommodate burgeoning traffic.

The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) signed a contract with a joint venture Australian and Japanese firm Thursday to conduct the study at a cost of Tk 800 million.

RHD Chief Engineer Mofizul Islam Raj Khan and Team Leader of SMEC International Pty Ltd of Australia Gavin Harold Strid signed the contract on behalf of the respective sides at the RHD conference room.

The SMEC will carry out the feasibility and prepare detailed design work with joint venture partner Oriental Consultants Co Ltd of Japan in association with Castalia Ltd of New Zealand and ACE Consultant Ltd of Bangladesh.

The consultants will get 36 months to find out the appropriate route from the proposed five routes identified during the pre-feasibility study conducted earlier.

On the occasion, Project Director (PD) Mahbub Ul Alam said the RHD has a plan to complete the construction under the PPP during 2019-2023 with the target to open the corridor for traffic movement by 2023.

He said the expressway project was taken considering to facilitating the increasing traffic to cross the corridor with 100-kilometre speed to reach the two destinations in three hours.

The PD said this expressway will accommodate the increased traffic volume on the Dhaka Chittagong corridor which to cross 70,000 in 2024 from the present 40,000 as none of the four lane or even eight lane road can cope with the increasing volume.

Asian Development Bank is providing technical support with a fund of Tk 726 million to the Dhaka Expressway PPP project.