Dhaka Elevated Expressway toll rate released
The government has released the toll rate for the Dhaka Elevated Expressway.
The tolls range from Tk 80 to Tk 400, revealed road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader on Sunday.
The bridges minister said, prime minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport’s Kawla to Farmgate section of the elevated expressway on 2 September.
Private cars, microbuses and mini-trucks will have to pay Tk 80 as toll, buses and mini-buses will pay Tk 160, medium-size trucks Tk 320 and large trucks Tk 400 to get on the 11.5 kilemetre-long section of the expressway.
The expressway will have a speed limit of 60 km/h. Three-wheelers like CNG auto rickshaw won’t be allowed to get on the expressway. Motorcycles are barred from using the expressway for now.
The construction of the Dhaka Elevated Expressway had begun in June of 2011. The project, under Public-Private-Partnership (PPP), was initially supposed to end by 2016. But due to changes in design, complications in land acquisition and financing, the deadline to finish construction has been pushed back five times.
After the foundation stone was laid, the construction work was supposed to conclude by 2017. Later it got pushed back to 2018. After that it was deferred another time to 2022. As the construction was still incomplete, the deadline once again got extended to June 2023.
Although one section is ready to be opened, the deadline to complete the construction of the entire project has been extended to June next year.
The estimated expense for the construction of the Elevated Expressway was initially set at Tk 87.03 billion (Tk 8,703 crore). In 2013, the cost was raised to Tk 89.40 billion (Tk 8,940 crore). As the length of the project kept extending, so did the cost. Currently the cost of the project including tax and vat is Tk 160.007 billion (Tk 16,00,70,07,153).
First Dhaka Elevated Expressway (FDEE) Company Limited is the investor company. Italian-Thai Development Public Company Limited has a 51 per cent share in the company, China Shandong International Economic and Technical Co-operation Group (CSI) has a share of 34 per cent and Sinohydro Corporation Limited has a share of 15 per cent.