Flyovers, bridges open for smooth Eid journey

FE Team | Published: April 06, 2024 22:36:40

FE REPORT
The government has opened a flurry of flyovers, overpasses and bridges for traffic at places between Elenga and Rangpur ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr festival to facilitate smooth journey of home-goers.
The infrastructure includes one railway overpass, seven overpasses and two bridges on the under-construction 190.2-kilometre Elenga-Hatikumrul-Rangpur highway.
Besides, an electronic toll collection system has been introduced in all booths of Meghna Bridge with the inauguration of its Toll Plaza-02 on Saturday.
While inaugurating the road infrastructure, road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader said passenger sufferings would lessen during their journey home this year.
The latest infrastructure that opened included 550-metre Tinmatha railgate overpass, 56-metre Datia bridge and 32-metre Fatki bridge in Sirajganj, 39-metre Mulibari overpass, 39-metre Panchila overpass and 35-metre Datpur overpass in Sirajganj and 157-metre B-block Cantonment Overpass and 178-metre Fultola overpass in Bogura and 30-metre Dhaperghat overpass and 08.0 metre Mirzapur overpass.
After opening seven flyovers in Gazipur road, traffic congestion centring on Eid journey could be avoided, the minister said.
"There is no traffic congestion on the highways despite the pressure of Eid traffic," he claimed.
The Roads and Highways Department has been developing 190.4-km Elenga-Hatikumrul-Rangpur highway at a cost of Tk 190.16 billion as part of establishing the South Asian Sub-regional Economic Corridor (SASEC).
The corridor is also part of the Asian Highway-02, the BIMSTEC-02 and the SAARC Corridor-04.
The SASEC-02 project work began 2019, but 75 per cent road-widening work has so far been completed.
Although the project tenure is likely to be completed next December, RHD officials said they need one year more to complete some interchange and flyover works.
Under the project, an interchange has been constructed at Hatikumrul in Sirajganj, five flyovers, 32 bridges and 39 overpasses.
Apart from the opening of Saturday's infrastructure, the prime minister earlier inaugurated 14 bridges, one flyover and 15 overpasses.
smunima@yahoo.com