The government has now planned to build the 'Dhaka Bypass' at a cost of Tk 2.40 billion under public-private partnership (PPP) initiative, officials said Saturday.
With full execution of the regional transit deal among four nations-Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal-the traffic load will take a further upturn, experts said.
Diverting traffic through the planned bypass is seen as an imperative even just now, to get rid of nagging road congestion in the overcrowded city.
The 'Dhaka Bypass' construction has been neglected for last three years due to implementation delays as the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has yet to select a private firm as its partner for the task, officials said.
Road Transport and Bridges Ministry officials said the RHD has undertaken the Support-to-Joydevpur-Debogram-Bhulta-Madanpur road project to upgrade it to a four-lane bypass under PPP at a cost of Tk 2.40 billion.
The ministry has sought approval for the project from the Planning Commission.
"We will spend the money mainly on land acquisition, rehabilitation, relocation of utility services, and make payment to the independent engineers. This project will attract private-sector entrepreneurs to come forward for constructing the road," said a ministry official.
He said they are ready to select a private company through international bidding for improving the Joydevpur-Debogram-Bhulta-Madanpur road into four-lane Dhaka Bypass.
Earlier in September 2012, the cabinet committee on economic affairs of the government endorsed the Dhaka Bypass project for implementation under PPP initiative.
According to the RHD, the existing two-lane Joydevpur-Debogram-Bhulta-Madanpur road will be upgraded to a four-lane access-controlled highway under the latest initiative.
Under the main road-construction project, the RHD and its private partner will improve the two-lane road to a four-lane one, with 4.8-metre-wide two service roads on the both sides of the main road, a railway overpass at Dhirasram, another railway-cum-road overpass at Mirerbazar, two U-turn underpass at Bhulta. It will also expand the Kanchan Bridge and another 780-metre bridge there.
RHD officials said the road will be constructed under "design-build-finance-operate-maintain" system. The concession period of the four-lane road will be 25 years.
The services roads on both sides will be maintained by RHD itself.
An official of the department said MMM Group, a Canadian firm, started transaction advisory work in December 2013 as the PPP office at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) appointed them for the task.
The Canadian firm completed its first-stage feasibility study on the Dhaka Bypass project in October 2014.
In its second-phase works, the firm is preparing bidding document to select a private investor and a concessionary agreement document for the main road construction.
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Govt plans to build \\\'Dhaka Bypass\\\' under PPP initiative
FHM Humayan Kabir | Published: June 22, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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