Inaugurated but inaccessible

The first elevated expressway in Chattogram city has yet to open to traffic, even though over eight months have passed since its inauguration in November last year.
The delay has been a disappointment to commuters in the port city, as they keep waiting for a respite from unbearable traffic congestion.
When the expressway was inaugurated, city dwellers hoped that their suffering would finally come to an end. However, the reality has been a far cry.
“We are still suffering from traffic jams and don’t know how much longer this will go on,” said Abdul Khalek, a private job holder who commutes regularly from the city’s GEC intersection to Customs area.
The Chattogram Development Authority constructed the 16-kilometre-long expressway, from Lalkhan Bazar to Patenga, at a cost of Tk 4,298.95 crore, to smooth communication and boost the economy.
Even though the construction work was incomplete, former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the expressway last year, a decision that drew flak from city planners, who termed it a bid to show off the development achieved by the then-ruling party ahead of the election.
Delwar Hossain Mazumdar, executive member of Forum for Planned Chattogram, earlier said the CDA failed to fulfil people’s expectations.
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council approved the government-funded Chattogram Elevated Expressway project in July 2017, scheduled to be completed by June 2020.
CDA, however, failed to complete it within the stipulated time, so the project’s deadline was extended twice till June 2024, while its cost went up from Tk 3,250 crore to Tk 4,298.95 crore.
The 16.5-metre-wide expressway has a four-lane path with 14 ramps at nine points.
In August 2023, CDA decided to name it after former Chattogram city mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury.
Visiting Lalkhan Bazar point of the expressway recently, this correspondent observed that workers were installing electric cables to connect lamps.
Contacted, Mahfuzur Rahman, project director and executive engineer at CDA, said there is no work left except installation of lights on the expressway.
Asked why the expressway has not opened to traffic yet, Mahfuzur dodged the question and requested this correspondent to contact the CDA chairman to know the date for opening the expressway to the public.
Asked why it was inaugurated last year before all works were completed, the CDA official said, “They [high officials of public works ministry] forced us in this regard.”
This correspondent went to the office of CDA chairman Mohammad Yunus for his comment on August 13 but found that he has not been coming to office since the former government’s fall on August 5. He could not be reached over phone despite several attempts.