Tejgaon ramp set to open soon

Another ramp of the Dhaka Elevated Expressway (DEE) is ready to open any day with the expectation of an increase in traffic flow over the city's first high- speed road infrastructure from Airport to Tejgaon.
The Tejgaon ramp of the country's first expressway being built under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) programme will, however, get only one way traffic movement from Kawla, Kuril and Banani like the Farmgate ramp.
The DEE Project office under the Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) is yet to fix the inauguration date triggering chaos in traffic management due to increase in flow of both small and heavy vehicles from the city's northern side including some highways.
"We expect an increase in number of vehicles including truck, van and staff buses as well as office-goers during peak hours, which need to be managed," said an official.
The BBA has already talked with Dhaka Metropolitan Police for a traffic management plan.
Project Director AHMS Akter said the PPP partner expects half the Farmgate's traffic to move to the Tejgaon ramp which will touch the surface road in front of the Bangladesh Film Development Corporation.
"Not only this, many vehicles which have so far skipped to use the DEE due to only option for exit through Farmgate will now start using the pay road to save time," he added.
He told the FE, "The DEE which received highest 49,000 traffic for a day will now get over 50,000 daily after opening of the Tejgaon ramp."
The BBA opened the 11.7 kilometre of the DEE from Kawla to Farmgate on September 4 keeping scope for only city traffic to use it though the PPP model has been designed for the highway traffic.
With this, traffic jam from Uttara to Banani has eased to some extend as mostly private cars and microbuses use the paid infrastructure to save at least an hour in their daily trip.
The 11.7 km ride took 11 minutes at the 60 km permissible speed limit since the inauguration which helped the private partner of the DEE get highest 49,000 vehicles for a day.
The DEE has been constructed under the PPP to build 46.7km expressway including 27 kms ramps at a cost of US $ 1.3 billion.

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