Tk 110cr Chittagong road serves little to ease traffic in city
Govt also loses revenue as vehicles avoid the road
Chittagong Port Access Road constructed at a cost of Tk 110 crore comes to little use for easing traffic congestion in the port city as most of the heavy vehicles avoid the road to dodge tolls.
The 12.46-kilometre road from Chittagong port was constructed along Dhaka-Chittagong highway to help movement of vehicles, particularly trucks, oil-tankers, covered vans, container-movers and lorries to and from the Chittagong Port to ease traffic pressure on the city centre.
But, in absence of proper monitoring by the authorities concerned, these vehicles are mostly plying through the city centre.
The government is deprived of a good amount of revenue due to the practice, sources said.
Hundreds of trucks, oil-tankers, covered vans, container-movers and lorries ply through the old Port Connecting Road round-the-clock and causing tremendous traffic jam at Pahartali, Olanker Intersection, AK Khan Gate and Colonel Hat areas.
A madrasa student and a woman were killed in two road accidents on Port Connecting Road in the last 15 days.
Roads and Highway Department constructed the road from Chittagong port to Bhatiary under Sitakunda in the district at a cost of Tk 110 crore financed by Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The road was opened for vehicular movement on February 06 in 2007.
Tolls for using the road were fixed at Tk 50 for each trucks, covered van, lorry and container-mover, Tk 30 for bus, Tk 25 for minibus and mini-truck, Tk 15 for microbus and private car and Tk 5 for CNG-run auto-rickshaw and motorbike.
Abul Bashar, supervisor of the toll plaza, said they collect around Tk 60 to 80 thousand as tolls from around 1800 to 2000 vehicles of different types a day while the amount decrease on the holidays.
Ensuring plying of all the vehicles to and from Chittgong port would earn the government a handsome amount of revenue, he said.
System engineer of the Toll Plaza, Rajat Kumar Das claimed, over 1,000 heavy vehicles pass by weigh scale of High Speed Axel Road on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway at Sitakunda upazila in a single rush hour.
“All these vehicles may not be to or from the Chittagong Port, but figure could give an idea about the number of vehicles expected at the Access Road,” he said.
Mohammad Kashem, project manager and executive engineer of Chittagong Roads and Highways Department, said police administration is responsible for ensuring movement of vehicles through the Toll Access Road.
Assistant Commissioner Traffic (Port) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police Mustafizur Rahman said 50 per cent of the vehicles are plying through the new road.
“In a recent meeting we have asked truck owners association leaders to ensure expected use of the road and gave warning of punishment to those who are avoiding the toll road intentionally,” he said.
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