4-lane Dhaka-Ctg Highway opens before Eid

The much-awaited four-lane Dhaka-Chittagong Highway will open before the Eid-ul-Fitr to be celebrated early next month.

Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said on Monday that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina would inaugurate the 192-km highway on July 2.

 

“We’re offering this (highway) to people as an Eid gift from the prime minister,” he told reporters while inspecting the project work at Chittagong’s Bhatiary.

 

The minister said most of the project work, sanctioned in 2005, has been completed. 

 

There are 23 bridges, 243 culverts and 14 bypasses on the highway, which, Quader said, would cut Dhaka-Chittagong travel time to four and a half hours.

 

He said the four-lane Mymensingh-Joydebpur highway would also be opened the same day.

 

Quader said the work on the 225-kilometre Dhaka-Chittagong expressway would begin late next year.

 

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council had approved the four-lane Dhaka-Chittagong Highway project on Dec 26, 2005 and work began in January the following year.

 

The highway was due for completion in June 2012 but the deadline was extended thrice.

 

The project cost went up from the initially approved sum of Tk 21.68 billion to Tk 38.17 billion, of which Tk 6.27 billion was pumped in as fresh allocation.