CDA to construct another ramp to increase use

Amid a huge criticism from urban planners regarding the “effectiveness and necessity” of flyovers in the port city, Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) is now going to construct an additional ramp at Bahaddarhat MA Mannan Flyover to “increase its use”, more than two and a half years after it was inaugurated.

The construction would begin in July and end in six months, said CDA Chairman Abdus Salam.

He hoped that the use of the flyover would double on completion of the project.

The ramp will be set up towards the Arakan road and the vehicles, coming from Muradpur, can use it to exit the flyover, said CDA sources.

Currently, there is no scope for the vehicles to exit, except through the two ends. As a result, a “small number of vehicles” use the 1.4km flyover, constructed at a cost of about Tk144.18 crore. It opened on October 12, 2013.

On different occasions, the Forum for Planned Chittagong (FPC), a platform comprising architects, urban planners and professionals, raised a question how many flyovers are necessary in the city with a small volume of traffic.

Few vehicles are using those constructed in an “unplanned way”. Their construction is nothing but a waste of a huge amount of money, says the forum.

The CDA chairman said, “It (the new ramp) was in the original design of the flyover.”

Its construction was kept halted temporarily due to an accident, he claimed, when he was asked about the delay.

On November 24, 2012, three girders of the under construction Bahaddarhat flyover collapsed, killing at least 11 people and injuring many others.

Town planners, however, said on completion of the new ramp, use of Bahaddarhat flyover might increase a little.

But the total outcome from the flyover would not be proportionate to the huge investment made for the project, Subhash Barua, a civil engineer and vice president of FPC.

Architect Zarina Hossain, general secretary of the forum, said people could use the flyover if the ramp was constructed in a proper way.

Delwar Hossain Majumder, another civil engineer and former president of the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh, Chittagong, echoed her.

He, however, said many public vehicles would not be interested so much as there was no scope of taking or getting passengers down from vehicles on the flyover.

“The private vehicles and the ones travelling long distances will use it more,” said Majumder, also president of Sachetan Nagorik Committee, Chittagong.

Appreciating CDA's move, Belayet Hossain Belal, secretary general of Chittagong Metropolitan Paribahan Malik Group, said, “It should have been constructed much earlier.”

The traffic congestion at Bahaddarhat intersection, beneath the flyover, will be reduced once the ramp is built, said Shah Alam Hawladar, president of Chittagong Human Hauler Workers' Union.

“…the vehicles bound for areas like Chandgaon, Mohora, Kalurghat in the city and Raozan, Rangunia and parts of Hathazari upazilas can pass through the flyover by using the ramp,” said Mohammad Kashem, a city bus driver.