The government has taken up a new project for developing the traffic infrastructures aimed at ensuring road safety in the northern area of the city.
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) has approved the project titled “Road Safety including Development of Traffic Infrastructure in Dhaka North City Corporation Area” involving Tk 319.23 for improving road safety.
Under this project, along with road development, development of sewers and pavements, construction of passenger canopy, development of footover bridges and construction of escalators on footover bridges will be done.
The project was approved at the meeting on Tuesday held at the NEC Conference Room in the city's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area.
Ecnec Chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina presided over the meeting.
The Prime Minister joined the meeting from Gonobhaban through video conferencing while some other ministers and state ministers, Planning Commission members and secretaries concerned also attended the meeting.
Planning Division Senior Secretary Md Ashadul Islam while briefing reporters after the meeting said, “Three projects were approved at today’s meeting. The total estimated cost of the three projects is Tk 5189.69 crore.”
Of the total cost, some Tk 2855.08 crore will be financed from the government fund, Tk 2,270.76 crore from foreign loan while the rest Taka 63.85 crore will come from the concerned organization’s own funds, he said.
Among the three approved projects, one project is fresh while two are the revised projects.
Talking about the project titled “Road Safety including Development of Traffic Infrastructure in Dhaka North City Corporation Area”, the senior secretary said the project will be implemented within a period from October 2020 to June 2023 at a cost of Tk 319.23 crore.
Of this, Tk 255.38 crore will be spent from government funds and Tk 63.85 crore from the implementing agency the Dhaka North City Corporation, he added.
The project includes 13.68 km of road development, 9.05 km of side-sewerage construction, 6.58 km of pipe sewerage construction, 26.58 km of footpath development, 7.74 km of road median installation, 22.77 km of MS grill fencing and 22.31 km SS grill fencing.
Besides, 1,710 traffic signs will be installed, 50 passenger canopies will be constructed, 36 new footover bridges will be set up and 47 existing footover bridges will be developed and escalators will be installed at 16 footover bridges under this project.
Dhaka North City Corporation was formed in 2011 with 36 wards. At that time its area was 82.36 square kilometers.
After the addition of 18 more wards, the area of this city corporation has become 196.226 sq km. The city has a road network of about 1,340 km.
There are various limitations on the main roads and other branch roads, which create traffic jams on the one hand, and disinterest in the safe use of roads and foot over bridges on the other.
The result was an accident.
The local government department said it is important to build traffic infrastructure considering the engineering aspects to increase safety on major roads in the DNCC area.
The project has been proposed to increase the safety of road users and vehicles through planned development of DNCC roads, to facilitate movement of vehicles and above all to raise public awareness on the use of roads, sidewalks and footover bridges.
Overall, the Planning Commission also thinks that the citizens will benefit if the project is passed. That is why, the project was approved.
On the other hand, two revised projects are the “Sonapur (Noakhali) -Sonagazi (Feni) -Jowarganj (Chittagong) Road Development” and “SASEC Road Connectivity Project-II: Improvement of Elenga-Hatikamrul-Rangpur Road to a 4-Lane Highway”
The original cost of the project of the “Sonapur (Noakhali) -Sonagazi (Feni) -Jowarganj (Chittagong) Road Development” was 172.65 crore, the first amendment was 185.98 crore and the second amendment increased the expenditure to 293.05 crore.
The project, which started in September 2015, was supposed to be completed in June 2018, but now it has been extended to June 2021.
The “SASEC Road Connectivity Project-II: Improvement of Elenga-Hatikamrul-Rangpur Road to a 4-Lane Highway” project had a cost of Tk 11,899 crore, an increase of Tk 4,763.37 crore in the First Amendment.
Now, the cost of the project increased to Tk 16,662.38 crore.
The project, which started in September 2015, was supposed to be completed in August 2021, but now it is scheduled to be completed by December 2024.