Jatrabari flyover ready to serve

An aerial view of Mayor Mohammad Hanif Flyover, set to be inaugurated early next month.

The much-awaited 10-kilometre-long Jatrabari flyover is set to open for public from early next month.
“We are going to open the main flyover for public use from early October,” Md Abu Alam Shahid Khan, secretary to Local Government Division, told The Daily Star.
“It will take until December to complete the construction work of a number of ramps of the flyover,” he said.
The official deadline for opening the main flyover was June this year.
But it was delayed time and again due to the presence of underground and overhead cable lines of utility services along the project’s pathway, he added.
The last segments of the flyover were mounted on September 13, with the construction of 315 pillars. So far over 90 percent of the total project work has been accomplished.
The 5.5-km long main flyover stretches from Dhaka-Chittagong highway (Kutubkhali) to Nimtoli through Jatrabari, Sayedabad, Kaptanbazar and Gulistan.
Though the total length of the flyover was estimated at 11 km, including its extended segment at Palashi, it would now terminate at Nimtali, said Salman Obaidul Karim, managing director of the concessionaire Belhasa Accom and Associates Ltd.
During a visit from the site’s Gulistan end to Jatrabari last week, this correspondent found that the last-minute works were going on in full swing with the construction workers laying the surface asphalt.
They were also dismantling heavy equipments from the site to make the flyover ready for use by the end of this month.
Of the eleven climbing and landing ramps, two at the Gulistan end would be ready for traffic by the time the flyover opens.
The rest of the ramps would become operational within three months, said project officials.
The flyover, named after former Dhaka city mayor Mohammad Hanif, is expected to make the road connectivity between 32 southeastern districts and the capital faster.
It would also help ease the perennial traffic gridlock in Saydabad, Jatrabari, Tikatuli, Gulistan and Fulbaria areas.
“To know exactly how much the flyover does ease traffic, we have to wait until it opens (for public),” said Prof Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, an eminent civil engineer.
“But definitely it would bring some benefits for locals in the heavily jam-packed areas,” he said.
Karim, MD of Belhasa Accom and Associates Ltd, said: “We are now laying bituminous membrane before putting the asphalt surface.
“We are also fixing the expansion joints between two spans as part of a final touch to complete the project.”
A British engineer, who has experience in supervising elevated expressway, would be hired for overall monitoring and operation of the flyover, he said.
The installation of sophisticated French equipments at seven toll plazas of the flyover is underway. A control room has already been built at Janapath near the Jatrabari bus terminal.
Five of the toll plazas will be set up on the ground while the rest on the flyover, Karim said, adding that toll would be collected by using both manual and digitised systems.
The flyover now terminates at Nimtali otherwise it would require heavy demolition of the existing structures on Buet campus, he said.
It was to be get integrated with the proposed elevated expressway at Palashi for greater communication benefit, said Jamilur Reza Chowdhury.
The Tk 2300 crore flyover — the country’s first-ever Public Private Partnership scheme — is being constructed on a build, own, operate and transfer basis.
The concessionaire is to hand it over to the government after 24 years of concession period.
Even though the cost of the project has doubled, it would not bring any changes to the toll charges, said LGD Secretary Shahid Khan.
For a single trip, Tk 5 will be collected as toll from a motorbike, Tk 10 for an auto-rickshaw, Tk 35 for a car, Tk 40 for a jeep, Tk 50 for a microbus, Tk 75 for a pickup van, Tk 100 for a minibus, Tk 150 for a bus, Tk 100 for a four-wheeler truck, Tk 150 for a six-wheeler truck and Tk 200 for a trailer.