The experts from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) suggested bringing significant changes in the present design and layout of the flyover, including cutting the number of ramps (slip roads) to the flyover for the entry and exit of vehicles.

They criticised the design for the way it artificially forces traffic onto the flyover apparently to increase revenue.

Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), the implementing agency and coordination body for the project, accepted the modified design and layout prepared by the Buet experts team.

The concessionaire of the Gulistan-Jatrabari flyover, Belhasa-Accom and Associates Ltd, however, said the experts team's proposals are impossible to implement.

"It is not possible to implement the modified design at this stage", a DCC official quoted a Belhasa-Accom official as saying.

Meanwhile, the construction of the Tk 670 crore flyover, which had been advancing at a snail's pace since June 2006, has remained stalled for the last four months.

The project has also been dogged from the very beginning by the allegation that contractor Belhasa-Accom won the contract improperly.

The joint venture of the UAE-based construction firm Belhasa International LLC and Orion Group's Accom Engineering Company Ltd is chaired by Orion's owner M Obaidul Karim, who has been in hiding after being accused of embezzling Tk 596.44 crore from Oriental Bank.

The five-member experts team led by civil engineering department professor Dr Alamgir M Hoque was appointed by the DCC in February last year, eight months after Belhasa-Accom was awarded the contract.

The team submitted its report to the DCC on April 7.

The Gulistan-Jatrabari flyover is an 8km stretch of mainly elevated highway aimed at easing the heavily congested traffic in the capital. It is a BOOT (build-own-operate-and-transfer) scheme in which the constructor finances the building in return for the right to collect tolls for an agreed period. After that period the flyover will be handed over to the DCC.

"The concessionaire put options for setting up unnecessary ramps [slip roads] to the flyover as these will enable more vehicles to get onto it and as a result they will get more duty," Alamgir Hoque told The Daily Star.

"They gave importance to their commercial interest over public interest while preparing the layout and design of the flyover," he said.

"We have advised to make the roads under the flyover free from obstructions as much as possible. The concessionaire prepared a design shrinking these roads, forcing vehicles to use the flyover," Alamgir added.

The experts team said if the flyover is constructed under the present layout and design, it will create a lot of problems for the city dwellers.

"The layout and design was prepared without a proper feasibility study and in an isolated way," Alamgir said, adding, "The design lacks the kind of expertise needed for constructing such flyovers."

He rejected the Belhasa-Accom suggestions that the amendments to the design at "such a late date" will seriously affect the project's cost. "No physical progress has been made so far in the flyover," he said.

BUET EXPERTS' REPORT

The Buet experts' modified report suggested that five of the 13 ramps to the Gulistan-Jatrabari flyover should be omitted from the original design to reduce obstructions to traffic movement on the roads under the flyover.

The experts submitted their report following a decision taken at a meeting held at the Nagar Bhaban on March 12 involving the DCC, the experts and the project implementation company officials. At the meeting the Buet experts suggested bringing modification in the flyover's layout.

According to the conceptual recommendations, the five ramps are Ramp 9 and 11 (up and down ramps on New Dayaganj Road), Ramp 7 (up ramp in front of the Sayedabad bus terminal), Ramp 13 (down ramp from Chittagong-Narayanganj Road), and Ramp 5 (down ramp to the Sayedabad bus terminal).

The report also suggested that two new down ramps should be added--one near the Rajdhani Super Market and another at the Gulistan end.

According to the preliminary design, the flyover will have four lanes, seven entrances and 13 ramps.

FLYOVER WORK MOVING SLOW
In the last 11 months, Belhasa-Accom has only put up fences of corrugated tin at three different sites of the project--one near the Janapath crossing on the Atish Dipankar Road, another on the Hatkhola Road opposite Rajdhani Super Market, and another in front of the Sayedabad inter-district bus terminal.

Prof Alamgir said no physical progress has been made so far, but DCC officials claimed that some piling work has been completed at two sites.

Former prime minister Khaleda Zia laid the foundation stone of the 8km flyover in June last year and the flyover is scheduled to complete within three years.

The concession period to recover the cost from tolls will span 24 years.

Belhasa-Accom has appointed two Chinese firms--China World-based Group Co and Chinese First Metallurgical Construction Co--for the construction work, said the DCC officials.