The Roads and Highways Department signed a concessionary agreement with a Chinese-Bangladesh consortium Sichuan Road and Bridge Corporation, Shamim Enterprise and UDC Corporation (SRBG-SEL-UDC) to upgrade the Dhaka Bypass Road under a public private partnership modality on December 6, 2018, says a press release.
The upgradation and construction of Dhaka Bypass under the Public-Private Partnership Authority will be on the Joydebpur-Debgram-Bhulta-Modonpur route. The ground breaking ceremony of the project took place on December 26, 2019. At a meeting of the Department of Roads and Highways held on March 3, 2021, the project company reported, "Construction work is underway with a target of 10pc physical progress by June 30, 2021."
Based on the PPP agreement, loan agreements have been signed between financial institutions and private partners to finance the project. The project is now in the Condition Precedent stage. The consortium announced that the financial closure would soon be completed.
The construction timeline of the 48km expressway project is three years. The project, being implemented entirely with private funding, will be managed and operated by a private partner under a 25-year contract.
Relevant work including construction is being carried out by the consortium Dhaka Bypass Expressway Development Company Limited after overcoming the initial hurdles of Covid.
On June 22, 2021, the revised support of Tk 846.4 million (84.64 crore) for this project was approved by ECNEC. This amount will be spent mainly on land acquisition, rehabilitation and consultancy. There is no provision for increase in the cost of the original PPP project after the agreement. The project is expected to reduce traffic congestion inside Dhaka city and establish road connectivity with safe and modern facilities which will play a significant role in increasing the overall trade and commerce of the country.
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