Only 8 minutes and 39 seconds bike riding were required to reach Khilkhet bus station from Mirpur DOHS area through ECB square at Matikata in Dhaka -- a road stretch of eight kilometres (km). During the ride, the bike speed was recorded at 40 to 50km per hour.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday opened the 2.34km Kalshi flyover to the traffic in the capital's Mirpur.
The correspondent started riding bike for Khilkhet at 12:33 pm from Mirpur DOHS end of the flyover. Before the journey began, the stopwatch was switched on in the cell phone to record the travel duration, which stood at eight minutes and 39 seconds at the end.
Before that 5 minutes and 18 seconds were required to and from the same area. At times, the riders have to bring down the bike speed to 15km hourly due to traffic jams and the crowd at ECB square.
When asked, the driver of a CNG-run auto rickshaw, which was carrying a patient from Mirpur to Kurmitola General Hospital at that time, said, "I didn’t look at the time. I think travel perhaps consumed the highest 10-12 minutes. However, I have to drive the CNG slowly as there was a crowd on the flyover."
Around 1:00pm, Projapoti Paribahan was dropping passengers off at the Kalshi intersection area. The driver of the bus, Hasan Mia, told Prothom Alo that, "Earlier, we had to face traffic jams to and from the Kalshi intersection. But today I drove the bus straight down the flyover. There was no traffic gridlock at all."
The ECNEC on 9 January, 2018 approved the project, under which, a 3.70 km stretch of road from the ECB square to Kalshi was widened, while the 2.34 km long flyover was constructed at the Kalshi intersection under the Local Government Division of the Ministry of LGRD and Cooperatives.
The Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Bangladesh Army (24 Engineer Construction Brigade) implemented the project at a cost of around Tk 10.12 billion.
The construction work of the project started in January in 2018 and it was completed four months prior to the stipulated time in June, 2023.
According to the project details, the flyover looks like an English alphabet 'Y'. The previously four lane roads have been widened to six lanes to ease passenger commute. The main four-lane flyover runs from ECB square towards Kalshi and Mirpur DOHS, while a two-lane ramp descends from Kalshi intersection to Kalshi Road.
The project also includes extension of a PC girder bridge, construction of two foot over-bridges, a public toilet, two police boxes, a 7.40 kilometre RCC drain and saucer drain, a 1755 metre RCC pipe drain, retaining wall, 3383 metre communication duct, 800,000 linear metre sand compaction pile, separate bicycle lanes, and six bus bays.
At least two overhead footbridges with escalators have been constructed next to the flyover.