Shawdesh Desk:

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to inaugurate the Dhaka Elevated Expressway on the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport-Farmgate route on September 2 and the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Tunnel under the Karnaphuli River in Chattogram on October 28 for vehicular movement.

At a press briefing on Monday, the road transport and bridges minister, Obaidul Quader, said that the prime minister would inaugurate Bangladesh’s first-ever metro rail service up to Motijheel in mid-October.

The minister was present at the briefing held at the Shetu Bhaban in the capital.

He said that On the Dhaka Elevated Expressway the vehicles would run from the next day after opening.

At first phase, the expressway’s 11.5 kilometres section from airport to the Farmgate ramp via Tejgaon and 13 ramps will be opened for vehicular movement.

The 46.73-kilometre expressway project connects Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to the Dhaka-Chattogram Highway at Kutubkhali near Jatrabari.

The main elevated portion of the expressway from the airport to Kutubkhali is 19.73 km, and it has 31 ramps — 15 for up and 16 for down — for a total length of 27 km.

Over 98 per cent construction work of The Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Tunnel under the Karnaphuli River has been completed so far.

According to project details, the tunnel will actually turn Chattogram into ‘one city with two towns’. It is being constructed beneath the Karnaphuli River.

The multilane tunnel will directly connect the Chattogram Port with Anwara upazila, which will directly connect Cox’s Bazar with Chattogram.

Meanwhile currently, the metro rail is running for 12 hours between 8:00am and 8:00pm taking passengers from all the nine stations on the Uttara–Agargaon route every day except Friday amid huge enthusiasm.

With the Monday announcement, the elevated service on the 20.1-kilometre-long Uttara–Motijheel route will become commercially operational from mid-October while the entire 21.26-km-long Uttara–Kamalapur route is scheduled to be inaugurated in June 2025.

The prime minister launched the country’s first-ever electricity-powered elevated and air-conditioned rail system on the 11.73-kilometre-long Uttara–Agargaon route on December 28, 2022.