Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover opens Thursday with hopes to ease traffic jams

Tumbling rickshaws and stalled cars in waist-deep flooded streets is a regular scene in Dhaka, including Mouchak area, during rains.

The digging, construction materials narrowing the streets added to the sufferings of the residents of Moghbazar, Mouchak, Malibagh, Rajarbagh and Shantinagar areas when the construction of an eight-kilometre flyover began six years ago.

The last phase of the Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover is opening for the public on Thursday with hopes that it will alleviate public sufferings.

The residents of the areas are now pinning their hopes on the flyover to get some desperate relief from traffic congestion.

The traders at the shopping centres, who have been counting lost business since the start of the flyover's construction in 2011, say the project will bode well for them only if the notorious traffic congestion go away.

Many fear the traffic jams might increase, because the roads under the flyover have become narrow while many of the drivers may avoid the flyover due to traffic signals on it.

Speaking to bdnews24.com on Wednesday, Ikram Hossain of Shaheedbagh said: "Traffic signals on flyover! Will it be good if cars are struck at the signals on the flyover? The situation will be the same."

Md Belal Hossain, a trader at Anarkoli Supermarket of Mouchak, said, "The street was wide beforehand. Now if a car breaks down, the entire street will be blocked."  

He urged the authorities to divert the buses and private cars to the flyover to avoid such situations.

"The traffic congestions will never go away if vehicles other than rickshaws and auto-rickshaws are allowed on the streets under the flyover," he said.

Belal also said the businesses in the area suffered most because of the construction of the flyover.

"We used to sell goods worth Tk 10,000 daily, now the sale does not exceed Tk 2,000. Who would come through such traffic congestions?" he asked.

"Let's see whether our fortune returns after the flyover is opened," he added.

Afroza Dipa, a media worker who travels on the street daily, thinks the authorities will have to be tough to divert the traffic on to the flyover.

"I hope the traffic congestions will ease. But the people will be disappointed if the jams continue," she said.

Meherunnesa Pia, a resident of Malibagh level-crossing area, said the sufferings have not diminished even after the end of construction of the flyover and with some of its sections already open.

"It still takes an hour to reach Moghbazar from Malibagh. It was one and a half hours six months ago. Then what is the benefit of having this flyover. Has the traffic congestion eased?" she asked.

"I have to travel on this street on foot many times. And it is a nightmare when it rains," Pia, a student of Eden Women's College, said.

Mouchak resident Salahuddin complained about the road divider under the flyover.

"The gaps for crossing are placed far from one another on the divider. It's tough for pedestrians to cross the street while rickshaws have to travel more distance. This is creating traffic congestions too," he said.

The media earlier reported a flaw in the flyover's design soon after the project's work kicked off in January of 2011. The project's foreign engineers designed the roads for left-wheel driving and left out right turns, experts had said.

There were also concerns about the design of its ramps.

Then, during the construction, one of the flyover's girders, being lifted by a crane whose cables snapped, fell on passersby, killing one and injuring two more on Mar 13 of this year.

The cost of the project is estimated at Tk 11.35 billion, which started as a two-year project in 2011 with an estimated cost of Tk 7.72 billion.

India-Bangladesh joint venture Simplex Navana Joyti, China’s Metalargical Construction Overseas Company (no 4) and Toma Constructions Ltd are implementing the project.