Azad Hossain, an employee at a private company, is beside himself with joy. He finds it difficult to process that the travails of his daily travel to his office have forever changed.

A resident of airport area, he travels in his car to his Farmgate office every morning on weekdays, a journey that usually takes him more than an hour. But as he took the elevated expressway yesterday morning, it took him only 10 minutes to reach Farmgate.

"I took the elevated expressway at 10:04 in the morning. I reached Indira Road by the time my clock struck 10:14 am. Who would have thought it would be possible to cover 11 kilometres in just 10 minutes?"

Rasel Ahmed, a businessman from Uttara, also travels to Farmgate on a regular basis for work-related meetings. He sounded equally excited about his experience of the country's first elevated expressway. 

"Just two days ago, it took me nearly two hours to reach Farmgate from Uttara. But yesterday afternoon, riding in my private car, I left for Farmgate at 1:49 pm. I drove up the elevated expressway and arrived there at 1:57 pm," said Hossain.

A 11.5 km section of the 19.73 km elevated expressway was formally opened to the public yesterday morning, ushering in a new era of vehicular movement in the traffic-choked capital city. The section that was opened stretches from the airport to Farmgate.

Mostly private cars were seen plying through the expressway all day long. Public buses operated on their regular routes.

At some entry and exit points, however, city-dwellers experienced traffic gridlocks on the first day of public movement on the elevated expressway.

In Banani, vehicles coming off the expressway added to existing tailbacks on the thoroughfare below. The closure of a ramp near Banani Police Outpost further worsened the situation. Passengers in some other areas including Mohakhali, Moghbazar and Bijoy Sarani also complained about hour-long delays.

Touhidul Islam, a private car driver who was headed to Moghbazar from Banani, said, "I saw a tailback as soon as I left home. I thought the roads might be empty today. But no local bus used the expressway."

Didar Hossain, another private car driver who travelled to Mohakhali from the airport area, said, "It took me 15 minutes on the expressway. But after driving down on the street, I got stuck for 30 minutes due to traffic."

Talking to journalists, Abu Saleh Md Raihan, joint commissioner of traffic (north) at Dhaka Metropolitan Police, yesterday said, "Traffic congestion was seen at the exit points in Farmgate, Mohakhali, Kakoli, and Kawla areas due to heavy pressure of vehicles that used the elevated expressway. As today is the first day, commuters on the city streets faced some inconveniences."

Kawsar Hossain, who travelled to Mohakhali from Moghbazar, was riding on a Balaka Paribahan bus. He said, "I got on at 8:00 am but was stuck in traffic for almost two hours."

About why buses were not seen on the elevated expressway, bus owners said public buses make multiple stops to pick up passengers along their usual routes. This is not possible on the controlled-access expressway. That's why they are avoiding the expressway and sticking to the streets, they added.

Along the 11-km section of the expressway, buses pick up passengers from Khilgaon, Kuril, Kurmitola, and the Army Stadium areas.

Commenting on the issue, Adil Mohammad Khan, executive director of the Institute for Planning and Development, said, "Public buses not using the expressway means congestion on streets won't go down." 

According to project sources, in the 15 hours between 6:00 am and 9:00pm yesterday, a total of 16,384 vehicles used the expressway.

The maximum traffic was seen entering from the airport end, with 9,052 vehicles getting on the expressway from this point.

In terms of revenue generation, over Tk 13, 30,160 was collected during the first 15 hours of operations.