Shawdesh desk;

The Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation on Monday started the first-ever bus service on the Dhaka Elevated Expressway’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport-Farmgate route.

A double decker bus started from Khamarbari area in the capital at about 11:30am on the day and got on the expressway by the ramp at Bijoysarani area.

The service was inaugurated with eight double-decker buses, the corporation deputy general manager (operation) Sukdev Dhali told New Age.

The corporation organised an inauguration ceremony at Khamarbari area in the morning. Road Transport and Highways Division secretary ABM Amin Ullah Nuri and BRTC chairman Md Tazul Islam spoke in the programme.

No bus will stop on the expressway and the ticket fare on Farmgate-airport route has been fixed as Tk 35.

BRTC officials said that the buses would run one after another towards the airport and they would give the round trip till night if the passengers are available.

The buses would go to Jashimuddin Road while the ticket fare will be Tk 40 on Farmgate- Jashimuddin Road route and Tk 10 on airport- Jashimuddin Road route.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the 11.5-kilometre section of the expressway from the airport’s Kawla area to Farmgate point via Tejgaon and 13 ramps to vehicular traffic on September 2.

Since the inauguration, hundreds of vehicles have been crossing the expressway daily but no bus service is available on it till Sunday.

The 46.73-kilometre expressway project will connect the airport with the Dhaka-Chattogram Highway at Kutubkhali near Jatrabari.