Flyover opens to public Oct 11 after over 3 years of construction chaos on road
After the long three-and-a-half years of sufferings that people underwent due to its construction work, the much-awaited Jatrabari flyover is set to open for public on October 11, official sources said. An official announcement of inaugurating the flyover on October 11 will soon come, and the prime minister is expected to open it, sources added. Over the years, city dwellers experienced horrendous traffic gridlock due to potholed roads along the flyover pathway stretching from Shanir Akhra through Jatrabari, Sayedabad, Tikatuli, Joykali Mondir, Kaptanbazar and Gulistan.
“We suffer terribly as we have to remain stranded for hours in traffic jam every day,” said Nurul Islam, a regular commuter to Shanir Akhra from Farmgate.
“Normally, it should not take more than an hour,” he added.
Md Jasim Uddin, who commutes from north Jatrabari daily, said “Our sufferings appear to be over as its construction work is nearing the end and the main flyover will be inaugurated soon.”
The air and noise pollution, caused by the construction work, had been like a hell for locals, said Delwar Hossain, a worker of a restaurant at Jatrabari intersection.
During a visit to the site last week, this correspondent found that workers at Jatrabari, Sayedabad, Kaptanbazar, Tikatuli, Hatkhola and Fulbaria points were busy to get the flyover and its ramps ready for inauguration.
Locals, however, said the separator walls, which were erected all along the central portion of the existing road, occupied ten to fifteen feet areas to guard the flyover pillars.
These walls would obstruct the movement of people, they added.
Md Sabuj, a local trader and also a resident of Wari, said, “Now we have to negotiate a one-kilometre detour at Joykali Mondir with to go to Tikatuli due to the pillar guards.”
Mostafizur Rahman, a traffic police constable, said it seemed unwise to occupy such a valuable space of the existing road with guard walls. The space could at least be used for car parking.
Md Ashiqur Rahman, project director of the flyover, said the separator walls were a part of the design to save the heads of piers on which the flyover carriageway rested against any possible collision of vehicles.
There would be landscaping on the space enclosed with the guard walls, he said, adding that it was not a reasonable idea to park cars in the middle of the road.
Salman Obaidul Karim, managing director of the concessionaire Belhasa Accom and Associates Ltd, said the pier guard walls had nothing to do with the beautification or inauguration of the flyover.
However, Prof Md Shamsul Haq, who teaches civil engineering at Buet, said the pier heads were supposed to be above headroom and be saved by design.
Only the pillars should be protected with the minimum of median to ensure maximum width of the existing road, added Haq, who is also involved as technical expert on various communications projects.
Project officials said the up and down-ramps at Shanir Akhra and Chankharpool and one up-ramp at Motijheel along with the main flyover would be ready for inauguration.
But the up and down-ramps at Janapath, Sayedabad and Dhaka-Mawa road would take four more months to complete as those sites were still occupied illegally, they added.
Earlier, the government had set several deadlines for the flyover’s inauguration ahead of time and deferred those in each case.
The construction work was delayed time and again due to the presence of underground and overhead cable lines of utility services along the project’s pathway.
Such delay further increased the public suffering.
The Tk 2300 crore flyover, country’s first ever Public Private Partnership scheme, is being constructed on Build Own Operate Transfer basis.
The concessionaire is to hand it over to the government after 24 years of concession period.
-With The Daily Star input
