Hatirjheel-Sonargaon flyover opened

A portion of the under-construction Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover has been opened to traffic on Wednesday.

During inauguration, the local government, rural development and cooperatives minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain said the entire flyover would be opened to traffic within next month.

The stretch from Bangladesh Film Development Corporation to Hotel Sonargaon would be allowed vehicles only to get down on Tejgaon-Panthapath link road.

The minister said the flyover would develop the capital’s communications system and ease traffic congestion.

While replying to a question, the minister said at Malibagh water stagnation was a regular incident.

He claimed that water-logging would not be seen in the area after completion of the flyover construction.

The construction firms had to work in a very limited extent and usually they work after midnight in the busy project areas, he said.

The construction work had been completed in an organised way so far, he added.

Faulty designs, prolonged construction work, poor traffic management and fatal accidents in the project areas have been the cause of immense sufferings to city people.

Earlier, the 450-meter long ramp was designed to get down in front of the BFDC gate and some structure had been constructed according to the design.

Following a Prime Minister’s Office directive, the ramp had been extended from BFDC gate to Hotel Sonargaon and the already built up structures had been demolished.

The flyover project director Sushanta Kumar Paul said construction cost of the ramp was Tk 45 crore while about 95 per cent work of the entire flyover had been completed so far.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated first phase of the 2.1-kilometre Holy Family-Satrasta section of the flyover for traffic on March 30, 2016.

The 8.7-kilometre flyover’s work started in February 2013 under the supervision of the Local Government and Engineering Department to ease traffic congestion between the capital’s north and south.

Last year the government increased cost of the flyover for the third time to Tk 1,218.89 crore from Tk 772.7 crore and extended deadline also for third time from December 2015 to June this year.

Source: New Age