The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) will build a 60.1-km inner circular road in the south-western part of Dhaka city, investing around US$ 1.61 billion, officials said on Monday.
The proposed four-lane dedicated road will be constructed on Dhour-Birulia-Gabtoli(Shinnirtek)-Swarighat-Chunkutia-Postogola-Chashara-Shimrail-Demra route.
According to the officials, RHD has planned to complete building the circular road by 2022 for diverting vehicles from inside the capital through it.
They also said RHD has already started searching foreign assistance to construct the road.
"We have already requested the Economic Relations Division (ERD) to look for funds for the proposed inner circular road project," said a RHD official.
"As the project will require a substantial amount of fund, we are trying to manage development partners for financing it."
"We have already requested the Planning Commission (PC) to approve the preliminary development project proposal (PDPP) of the inner circular road project (part-2)."
After getting confirmation of the fund from any development partner, RHD will seek approval of the project proposal for starting the construction work, he also said.
The government has decided to build the inner circular road around the capital to reduce traffic congestion inside the city.
Under part-2 of the project, road on Dhour-Birulia-Gabtoli(Shinnirtek)-Swarighat-Chunkutia-Postogola-Chashara-Shimrail-Demra route will be built.
The rest of the road in the north-eastern part of the city will be constructed under part-1 of the project, the RHD official added.
The circular road will mainly be built by using the existing embankment around Dhaka city. Another RHD official said: "If we can construct the inner circular road, the vehicles which now use the city roads to go from one direction to another direction will not enter the capital."
The vehicles will then take the inner circular road to reach their respective destinations, bypassing Dhaka city. It will create less traffic congestion inside the capital.
"We will not only build the four-lane road. Service lanes on its both sides, flyovers, intersections and overpasses etc will also be constructed," he added.
RHD is expecting fund from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) or any other development partner for building the circular road.
Dhaka is the worst city in the world in terms of traffic congestion. Its roads constitute only 8.0 per cent of the total land area of the capital, which is 17 per cent lower than the standard level (25 per cent) of road area in a city.
Seven national highways are connected with the capital, and it is the crossing point of several highways and district roads.
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