Dhaka Bypass Expressway is an under construction

controlled-access highway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...

located in the division of Dhaka. The project is a section of

Asian Highway 1 Asian Highway 1 (AH1) is the longest route of the Asian Highway Network, running from Tokyo, Japan via Korea, China, Southeast Asia, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran to the border between Turkey and Bulgaria west of Istanbul ...

. The primary purpose of construction was to reduce heavy traffic on access roads and highways through the city of Dhaka.

History

Before the construction of the expressway, there was a road here called Dhaka Bypass Road. According to the report of ''

Bangladesh Pratidin ''Bangladesh Pratidin'', literally meaning Bangladesh Everyday, is a daily, Bengali-language independent newspaper in Bangladesh. It was founded on 15 March 2010. ''Bangladesh Pratidin'' tops the list of highest circulated dailies in the country ...

'', the government had long ago thought of converting this road into an expressway and many discussions were going on about it. The conversion project named 'Support to Joydebpur–Debgram–Bhulta–Madanpur Road' was approved by the government in September 2012. After 4 years

Executive Committee of the National Economic Council The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) is an executive committee under the Cabinet Division The Cabinet Division ( bn, মন্ত্রিপরিষদ বিভাগ) is the executive office of the Prime Minister ...

gave approval for implementation of works related to the project. Initially, the government took the initiative to construct a 45 km flyover highway on this road. The cost of this flyover project was fixed at . But it could not be implemented due to complications in ministries. On 6 December 2018, the government signed a public-private partnership agreement with Sichuan Road and Bridge Group, Shamim Enterprise and UDC Construction Limited to implement the project to convert the road into an expressway. According to the agreement, it was initially agreed that this four-lane expressway will be constructed at a cost of . The share of the government was . Under the construction project, there were plans to construct overpasses, underpasses and bridges at various places on the expressway.

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is responsible for financial consultancy of this project. However, the project deadline of June 2020 has passed for land acquisition and financing work. Therefore, the project implementation period is extended by another 4 years. Also, the government has increased its share in the project budget to . On 22 June 2021, Executive Committee of the National Economic Council approved the project again after revision. On 24 April 2022,

Bangladesh Infrastructure Finance Fund Limited Bangladesh Infrastructure Finance Fund Limited () is a Bangladesh government owned non-bank financial institution with the purpose of encouraging investment in the infrastructure in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Infrastructure Finance Fund Limited and I ...

announced a loan assistance of for the construction of the expressway and they provided as the first installment of the loan to Dhaka Bypass Expressway Development Company Limited. The government increased its own share in the budget by another . Sichuan Road and Bridge Group, Shamim Enterprises and UDC Construction Limited jointly formed the Dhaka Bypass Expressway Development Company. The company formed for the project has been given the opportunity to collect tolls for 23 years after the time of establishment of the expressway.

Construction

Its construction started on 26 December 2019. In June 2021, '' The Daily Star'' reported that land acquisition for the project was 73% complete. After 24 April 2022, the construction of the expressway was speeded up due to the loan assistance of Bangladesh Infrastructure Finance Fund Limited.

References

{{reflist Roads in Dhaka Expressways in Bangladesh AH1 Purbachal Gazipur District Narayanganj District