The government has taken up three projects aimed at ensuring smooth traffic flow on the exit routes from the capital.

One of them has already been approved by the cabinet committee on economic affairs, under which 13.5-kilometre highway will be upgraded into four lanes and multi-tier flyovers will be constructed to help Chittagong and Sylhet-bound traffic move out of Dhaka with ease.

Work on the project is scheduled to start next year and be complete by 2020 at Tk 1,734 crore under Public Private Partnership (PPP). Thirty percent of the cost will be borne by the government, of which Tk 140crore will be spent on acquiring 5 hectare of land and shifting utility lines.

The project has three parts. One will be a 9.50 kilometre highway from Rampura Bridge to Demra Circle, part of which will be elevated. There will also be two-tier flyovers.

Another 2 km will be from Demra Circle to Chittagong Road with multi-layer flyovers for uninterrupted flow of traffic to Chittagong and Narayanganj.

The third part will be developed from Demra to Tarabo Crossing to ensure smooth passage of vehicles going towards Sylhet.

If the existing two-lane highway, which was completed in 2014, is widened to four lanes, it will free the exit and arrival points on the periphery of Dhaka, said officials at the Road Transport and Highways Division.

Vehicles from Gulshan, Badda, Farmgate and Uttara will be able to exit Dhaka city through the highway, according to the project proposal.

It is projected that as many as 11,000 vehicles will ply the highway every day once it is open to the public and the economic return will be 5.18 times the project cost in 25 years.

Another project is 34-kilometre Dhaka-Ashulia and East-West elevated expressway.

The cabinet committee on purchase yesterday approved a proposal for appointing a joint venture of Australia, Denmark and Bangladesh as consultant to do the feasibility study. 

The companies are Australian SMEC International (Pvt) Ltd, Dev. Consultants Ltd and ACE Consultants of Bangladesh and COWI A/S of Denmark.

Earlier in 2011, the cabinet committee on economic affairs decided to construct the expressway under PPP initiative. The Bridges Division then estimated the cost at $2 billion.

However, officials said the actual cost would be projected after the feasibility study.

The expressway will connect Dhaka Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to the National Memorial in Savar via Abdullahpur, Ashulia, DEPZ and Chandra on the North Bengal Highway.

The third project is Dhaka-Narayanganj dual-gauge rail line.

The purchase committee approved another proposal yesterday for appointing a consultant to prepare the detailed design of the rail line.

The other responsibilities of the consultant, Dhaka-based Development Design and Consultants Ltd, will be tendering service and construction supervision. The government will pay Tk 11.97 crore to the consultant.

An uninterrupted communication between Narayanganj and Dhaka will be established after the completion of the rail line.