DEE toll modest Tk307m as mainly cars drive

Bangladesh's maiden elevated expressway has earned a modest Tk 307 million from tolls as private cars mainly ply the overhead road since partial opening of its Airport-Tejgaon section four months ago.
By office count, cars account for an overwhelming 98 per cent of users so far, while variegated lot many other modes of transport take the trouble to drive through tailbacks in Dhaka city.
Though average daily earning from the Dhaka Elevated Expressway (DEE) was Tk 2.5 million from 33,000 vehicles, the data show that the country's first PPP project failed to attract heavy vehicles as the private partner's returns on investment are highly dependent on these high-toll- paying vehicles.
Analysts, however, have said the partial opening has given some respite from the traffic jams and reduced travel time, but its impact was not to the level of desire for being unable to divert heavily loaded highway traffic from the city streets.
According to official data, 3.7 million vehicles have crossed the DEE since September 3 of which 3.6 million are car and microbus categories. Only 4,705 trucks of up to six wheels and 165 trucks greater than six wheels used the DEE since the opening on September 3, with the percentage being 0.12 and 0.004 respectively.
The number of buses using the expressway was 53,988 or 1.4 per cent.
These vehicles use the DEE paying flat Tk 80, Tk 350, Tk 400 and Tk 160 respectively from all six entry points.
Bangladesh Bridges Authority (BBA), the executing agency of the first DEE project under PPP, allowed the private partner, Italian-Thailand Public Development Company Ltd (ITD), to collect toll at flat rates for using 11.7 kilometres by dividing vehicles into four categories.
The toll taking was affected due to opposition-called strikes during the period. "We are generally happy with traffic at 35,000 per day," said Managing Director of ITD Bhaskon Khannabha.
In an email reply to the FE, he, however, expressed the hope that BBA could contribute more to the company and remove all obstructions for better and efficient construction as ITD has plan to complete the rest of the DEE within 2024 to follow the Prime Minister's direction.
The ITD has been selected as the private partner for the DEE to get tolls for entire 46.7km expressway, 27 kms of which are ramps, to get back its investment worth US $ 1.3 billion in total 25 years of concessionaire period including three and a half years for construction.
But the BBA opened the first 11.7km structure with total 15 ramps of entry and exit before the government-announced election schedule for the 12th national election.
According to the data, the toll collection in September was Tk 67.74 million which increased to Tk 75.12 million in October and Tk 87.43 million in December.
But the earning in November dropped to Tk 65.75 million which has relation to the opposition-called strike. In October, the number of vehicles also dropped to below 13,000 for three days separately.
BBA Chief Engineer Quazi Muhammad Ferdous, however, says the ITD earning did not drop to the level for which the government's contribution may need.
According to the revised concessionaire agreement signed in December 2015, if the traffic volume on the expressway remains below 13,000 threshold for 15 consecutive days, the private party will be compensated with another one-day collection after 25 years of concessionaire period.

[email protected]