Govt set to revive $1.0b Dhaka Eastern Bypass after WB nod

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Shakhawat Hossain
The caretaker government is set to revive the construction of the nearly US$ 1.0 billion Dhaka Eastern Bypass after the World Bank has given a green signal to the project, officials said Wednesday.
The positive nod for the ambitious project came after the government agreed to consider the Eastern Bypass as part of a comprehensive urban development programme rather than a stand-alone highway, they said.
The crucial road, which would enable thousands of transports to bypass Dhaka as they move between the eastern and western parts of the country, was conceived in 1988 as a project under the roads and highway division.
But it never saw the light of the day as the government struggled to line up donors for financing the highway, which would also act as a flood protection embankment nestling along the bank of the river Balu.
After a long persuasion the WB conditionally agreed to fund major part of the cost, provided the government does a comprehensive study focusing on its priority and establishes a separate entity for better coordination.
Officials of Economic Relations Division said a massive spike in project cost also delayed its fruition.
In a 1999 study, the ERD estimated the project cost at $500 million, but in the past nine years its outlay almost doubled due to soaring prices of construction materials and land acquisition.
The ERD --- which negotiates project financing with bilateral and multilateral donors--- will hold an inter-ministerial meeting today (Thursday) on the WB's conditions and how fast they can move the project forward.
Government officials, familiar with the negotiation with WB, said the project is crucial for flood protection in the city's eastern stretch, to ease chronic traffic snarls and expand the capital's boundary beyond Demra.
"It will open up new urban landscape in the east, which will be equal to the existing size of the capital," said an official.
The ERD has already identified some barriers standing on the way to the implementation of the project, including lack of appropriate land use guideline, land acquisition plans, legal framework and institutional capacity.
"It will be tough to take the project further without sorting out these potentially crippling problems," the official said, adding Thursday's inter-ministerial meeting would try to tackle the issues.
"If we don't fix the problems now, the bypass will only benefit the politically connected land speculators as value of land under the area will go sky-high once the government starts making investment on the project," he said.