Dhaka to undergo makeover with more highways and bridges

DHAKA - The Bangladesh capital will be transformed into a modern metropolis as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina unveiled plans to undertake major infrastructural changes in the city and elsewhere by cleaning up the rivers and building more highways and bridges.

Sheikh Hasina Tuesday reaffirmed her pledge to upgrade the four centuries-old national capital to a modern, beautiful and hassle-free city ensuring smooth communications both on roads and waterways in and around the capital.

She unveiled the plan while inaugurating the third Buriganga Bridge at Basila in Mohammadpur area. The bridge has been named in the memory of those who were killed by Islamist militia in the run-up to nation’s freedom in 1971.

The 708-metre-long and 10-metre-wide bridge with 1.58-km approach road at Basila and 1.05km at Washpur has been built at a cost of Tk 840 million ($ 12 million) for connecting the southern outskirts with the capital.

Hasina said that steps have been taken to construct elevated expressway and metro rail and circular waterways around the capital to facilitate smooth communications and reduce the pressure of traffic on the road network in the city, United News of Bangladesh (UNB) said.

“The government will clean up the Buriganga, Turag, Balu and Shitalakhya rivers to facilitate circular waterway communications around the city,” she said. Walkways will also be constructed on the banks of the rivers.

She said the tender for constructing the Padma bridge would be floated in February. The construction work is expected to be started by September and it is to be completed in December 2013.

Steps have been taken initially to construct a second Padma Multipurpose Bridge between Paturia and Goalanda - the two points across the Padma that are linked by ferry service.

Hasina said the government is strongly committed to linking Dhaka with the rest of Bangladesh with modern, fast-track communications system.

The government has also approved a hike in the expenditure for the Dhaka-Chittagong highway project to Tk 2.38 billion ($344 million) while the cabinet purchase committee has approved awarding three companies the contract to build the four-lane highway for Tk 1.65 billion.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council gave the go-ahead for cost hike on grounds that the project’s design and time limit have changed since its first approval in 2005, The Daily Star said.