The much-talked-about 11-km-long Mayor Mohammad Hanif Flyover in the city is being opened to traffic on Saturday. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, on Friday, inaugurated the country’s longest flyover, by cutting the ribbon at Gulistan Point, at 3:50pm.
After the inauguration, the Prime Minister, along with her motorcade, went up to the Kutubkhali edge, passing through the flyover. She unveiled the plaque of the flyover at Kutubkhali, at about 4:00pm. A special munajat was performed at Kutubkhali, on the occasion.
Sheikh Hasina was the first to pay the toll of her car at Kutubkhali toll plaza, as the first user of the flyover.
Hundreds of local people and ruling party activists thronged Gulistan and Kutubkhali during the inauguration ceremony and unveiling of the plaque.
The Prime Minister waved at the people waiting at Kutubkhali, while passing through the flyover.
She also talked to local MP Habibur Rahman Mollah, for a while, at Kutubkhali.
Soon after the departure of the Prime Minister, hundreds of curious people walked down the flyover, to see the new wonder replacing the old-dilapidated road highway connecting the country’s south and north-eastern parts.
Sheikh Hasina, also the President of the ruling Awami League, addressed the inaugural ceremony of the flyover at Osmani Memorial Auditorium, in the evening.
Minister for local government and rural development, Syed Ashraful Islam, state minister for LGRD Jahangir Kabir Nanak, state minister for home affairs advocate Shamsul Haque Tuku, Habibur Rahman Mollah, MP, advocate Sanjida Khanom, MP, Mostafa Jalal Mohiuddin, MP, Sayeed Khokon, son of Mayor Hanif, Dhaka South City Corporation, and other senior government officials were present on the occasion.
Sources said that the main lane of the flyover, known as Jatrabari-Gulistan flyover, will be opened to traffic from Saturday morning, and the walkways along the flyover would be opened by December, after completion of the construction work.
This hi-tech intensive project is the first scheme under Public Private Partnership (PPP) in Bangladesh, designed to provide improved, faster and safer road connectivity, with minimum amount of travel time.
The flyover connects Dhaka-Chittagong, Dhaka-Mawa and the Dhaka-Demra highways, and the different link roads of Jatrabari and Gulistan areas, to ease traffic congestion in the southern part of the city.
It would also connect the capital with five divisions—Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet, Khulna and Barisal.
The flyover will also help reduce vehicle operating-cost significantly, travel time from the usual one hour, to a mere five minutes, improve environmental quality, by reducing air pollution, and ensure smooth and safer journey on the flyover through improved traffic circulation and management.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the construction work of the flyover on June 22 in 2010.
The Belhasa Accom and Associates Ltd, a concern of the Orion Group, has been constructing the four-lane flyover on a BOOT basis, at a cost of Tk. 2,108 crore.
The Orion Group will handle the management of the flyover, collect toll, and look after its maintenance.
After realising the construction expenditure from toll, over 24 years, the company will hand over the flyover to the Dhaka South City Corporation. However, 5 per cent of the toll collected, during these 24 years, will be deposited to the DSCC.
The toll will have to be paid during exit. The rates of toll have been fixed at Tk. 200 for trailers, Tk. 150 for trucks and buses, Tk. 100 for four-wheeled trucks and minibus, Tk. 75 for pick-ups, Tk. 50 for microbus, Tk. 40 for Jeep, Tk. 35 for private cars, Tk. 10 for auto-rickshaws, and Tk. 5 for two-wheelers.
Apart from cash paid at toll plaza, toll will be realised through automatic vehicle classification system. Under this system, regular users of the flyover will get pre-paid stickers pasted on their vehicles, and the toll will be deducted automatically when those vehicles pass through the toll plaza.
Experts said that the use of the flyover will save huge amount of money, in terms of savings on fuel and time.
-With The Independent input
