A four-lane 6.5 km road has been constructed from Bihas and Rice Research Institute on Natore highway in Rajshahi city to Alif Lam Meem Bhatar intersection on Rajshahi-Naogaon road. Beautiful street lights have been installed on this road. A flyover has been constructed for the movement of trains over a part of the road. But that flyover was of two lanes. Another flyover is being constructed adjacent to the first flyover as part of the ‘defect’ repair of the two-lane flyover on the four-lane road. As a result, the construction cost of the second flyover increased compared to the first flyover.
Officials of Rajshahi City Corporation concerned with the construction of roads and flyovers say that the Ministry of Local Government has not allocated money for the construction of flyovers. So Rajshahi City Corporation (Rasik) has to do the same thing twice. When the current flyover under construction is completed, the two-lane ‘error’ will no longer exist. Construction of the second flyover was scheduled for December-2022. However, it will take a few more months to complete the work, the officials said.
According to related sources, in the first phase, a 202.50 meter flyover and a 120 meter long connecting road were constructed on a part of the road. It costs 29 crore 28 lakh 77 thousand 532 taka. At present, the construction of another 192.5 meter long flyover and 300 meter long connecting road on the western side of the first flyover is nearing completion. The cost has been estimated at 40 crore 79 lakh 68 thousand 120 taka.
Compared to the construction of the previous two-lane flyover, the construction cost of the second two-lane flyover has increased by Tk 11 crore 50 lakh 90 thousand 588. If the four-lane flyover is constructed simultaneously, the construction cost would have been much lower, the stakeholders admitted. Two flyovers are being constructed with full government funding. The first flyover of the five-year-old project was inaugurated last year. The project for the second flyover was prepared about two years ago. During this period, the construction cost increased by 11.5 million taka.
As you can see from the project area, the construction of the second flyover on the west side of the first flyover is also nearing completion. A contractor in Dhaka is doing the work. Mahamudul Hasan, the manager of the contracting company, said that a two-lane flyover was built on the four-lane road earlier. As a result, when the number of vehicles on the road increases, eight lanes of vehicles come on both sides of the flyover and cause traffic jams on both sides. A second flyover is being constructed to solve this problem. However, if the four-lane flyover was constructed simultaneously, the cost would have been lower.
Why was the four-lane flyover not built at the same time? When asked, Rasiq’s then chief engineer and current consultant engineer Ashraful Haque said that when the project was prepared for the construction of the road, the flyover was not included. Only one level crossing gate was envisaged for the railway line. That’s how the project got approved. Later, instead of level crossing gates, plans were made to construct a flyover above the railway line intact. But then the local government ministry did not allocate a huge amount of money for the construction of the four-lane flyover. The ministry then allocated Tk 29 crore for the construction of only two-lane flyover. So then a two-lane flyover was constructed. However, they planned to construct another flyover on the west side in the future to solve the ‘error’ by making the flyover four lanes. Now that is being implemented.
Regarding the cost increase, Project Director and Rasik’s Supervising Engineer Noor Islam Tushar said that the market price of five years ago and the current market price are not the same. Everything has gone up in price. So the cost has also increased.
