Dhaka’s longest flyover opens

Finally, pedestrians and vehicles get to using the Jatrabari flyover following its inauguration yesterday. Photo: Firoz Ahmed

City dwellers’ dream for an elevated roadway came true as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formally opened the country’s longest Jatrabari-Gulistan flyover amidst public fanfare in the capital yesterday.
The prime minister arrived at the Gulistan ramp of the flyover, officially named after late Dhaka mayor Mohahammad Hanif, in the afternoon and opened the facility to traffic.
As the first user of the flyover, she paid a toll of Tk 50. Along with her motorcade, she then took the flyover route all the way up to Sayedabad, where she alighted from her vehicle and walked for sometime to see the newly built facility for herself.
From there, she travelled to the flyover’s exit at Kutubkhali near the Dhaka-Chittagong highway and unveiled the inaugural plaque there.
For a single trip across the flyover, a motorbike will be charged a toll of Tk 5, an auto-rickshaw Tk 10, a car Tk 35, a jeep Tk 40, a microbus Tk 50, a pickup van Tk 75, a minibus Tk 100, a bus Tk 150, a four-wheeler truck Tk 100, a six-wheeler truck Tk 150 and a large goods vehicle Tk 200.
To avert traffic gridlock and public sufferings, the inaugural ceremony was organised at the Osmani Memorial Hall near Gulistan instead of the flyover site.
Speaking at the programme, the prime minister said the flyover was an Eid-ul-Azha gift for the city residents.
The 11.8km flyover will ease the perennial traffic congestion and greatly facilitate the connectivity of 32 southeastern districts with the capital city. It will also help the link of Chittagong and Mongla sea ports and the proposed Padma bridge with the capital, mentioned Hasina.
Orion Infrastructure Limited, a concern of local business conglomerate Orion Group, developed the facility absolutely on private finance as the country’s first ever Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme.
Md Obaidul Karim, chairman of Orion Group, said they had to accomplish an arduous job while building the flyover, keeping a web of underground utility service lines undamaged and traffic movement undisrupted.
“We had to overcome an enormous negative propaganda against the venture and various physical hurdles to implement the scheme. But today, the dream has become a reality,” he noted.
Though as per the agreement, the government was required to clear all the obstructions from the project site and handover a green field, it later wanted the concessionaire to implement the scheme keeping all the underground trunk lines of gas, electricity, water and telephone intact to save Tk 400 crore and expedite the work, mentioned the Orion chief.
The flyover pathway stretches from Shanir Akhra to Palashi via Jatrabari, Sayedabad, Hatkhola, Tikatuli, Joykali Mondir, Kaptanbazar, Gulistan and Fulbaria.
LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam said, “Sheikh Hasina will also inaugurate the under-construction Shantinagar-Moghbazar flyover next year as an elected prime minister.”
Abu Alam Md Shahid Khan, secretary to local government division, said a total of 2,000 workers and 120 engineers worked for 26,000 hours to build the flyover with 32,000 tonnes of steel, 89,000 tonnes of cement and 1,66,000 tonnes of stone.
Fitted with earthquake resistant devices, the flyover has a height clearance of 5.5 metre to facilitate traffic movement on the existing roads. State-of-the-art design based on the latest American code has been applied to its construction, said Project Director Md Ashiqur Rahman.
Jahangir Kabir Nanok, state minister for local government, also spoke at the programme, chaired by Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) Administrator Nozmul Islam.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina offers prayers after inaugurating Mayor Mohammad Hanif Flyover in the capital yesterday. Photo: BSS

The construction work of the flyover had begun in mid-2010. The DSCC is the executing agency of the scheme, while CES India Limited worked as independent consultant, LEA International Canada and LEA Associates South Asia Limited India as design consultants and Simplex Infrastructures Limited India as the contractor.
World renowned GEA France equipment have been installed for collecting tolls at seven plazas. Transcom Electronics of Bangladesh supplied the electrification materials for the project.
The up and down ramps at Shanir Akhra and Chankharpool and two up ramps at Motijheel and Gulistan are ready along with the main flyover. Construction of ramps at Janapath, Sayedabad and Dhaka-Mawa road would take four more months.
Being built on Build Own Operate Transfer basis, the Tk 2,300 crore flyover will be handed over to government after 24 years of concession period.
Salman Obaidul Karim, managing director of Orion Group, said thousands of curious local residents thronged the flyover immediately after its opening yesterday afternoon. The company would have to wait until midnight to let vehicles cross it.
Shafiqur Rahman, a college student from Jatrabari, said they were elated to have the flyover in the area, which had been plagued with traffic congestion for many years.
‘GOVT TOOK AWAY CREDIT’
The BNP yesterday accused the ruling Awami League of taking away the credit from the last BNP government for implementing the Jatrabari flyover project.
“We had completed about 40 percent work of the flyover during the tenure [2001-2006] of our last government,” Sadek Hossain Khoka, vice-chairman of BNP, told a press conference at the party’s Nayapaltan headquarters.
It was the first project in the country under the PPP, added Khoka, also a former Dhaka mayor.
The government, said former minister Osman Faruk, takes no interest in solving the country’s current political crisis. Rather, it has been inaugurating incomplete projects as it has lost public support, he complained.