Different mega projects to improve the capital city’s communication system are being implemented at a snail’s pace.

Recent revised Annual Development Programmes show that the present and the previous governments released lower funds for some of these projects while decisions on some of the projects are yet to be taken.

The projects, including three mass rapid transit lines, one bus rapid transit line, and the Dhaka Elevated Expressway, were undertaken during the then Awami League government period after 2009.

These projects were taken up to enhance the transport facilities for the citizens who have been suffering due to shortage of public transports and cheap and passenger-friendly means of movement.

Road transport experts said that the government should have expedited these projects by announcing them as fast-track ones.

Professor Shamsul Hoque, who teaches civil engineering at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, said that delays were visible in the implementation of the projects.

‘There are specific reasons for the delays. For 17 years, these works were conducted in a non-transparent process,’ he said.

The country’s first-ever bus rapid transit line project was undertaken nearly 14 years ago and cost about Tk 2,800 crore to connect Gazipur and the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital through a dedicated bus service corridor.

Under the project that began in December 2012,  the 20.5-kilometre dedicated bus lanes are now open to all vehicles while not a single bus has been purchased so far by the company formed to implement the project.

Dhaka Bus Rapid Transit PLC, the implementing agency of the Bus Rapid Transit Line-3 project, is now uncertain about the project’s future.

Company managing director Muhammad Nurul Amin Khan said that the project tenure ended in December 2024.

Earlier, the company sent a proposal to the Planning Commission during the interim government to extend the deadline till December 2026 and increase the cost of the project by Tk 2,329 crore.

‘But the proposal was not accepted,’ he said, adding that the present government was yet to decide if the project should continue or be scrapped.

The Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit Company Limited is implementing a network of six mass rapid transit lines spanning about 141 kilometres of distance, comprising both elevated and underground lines in Dhaka city, by 2030, which started in 2016.

Japan is providing loans for the construction of the first three MRT lines in Bangladesh through the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Currently, metro trains are running on the Uttara–Motijheel portion of the 21.26 kilometres of long elevated Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit Development Project Line-6 or popularly known as MRT Line–6 project.

According to the DMTCL, the project has been undertaken at a cost of Tk 32,717.72 crore, out of which Tk 26,499.86 crore or 81 per cent was spent till March this year.

Work on its extension from Motijheel to Kamalapur is now going on and the progress of the civil work on the section was 73.25 per cent till March this year.

Line-6 project director Brig Gen (retd) Md Abdul Wohab said that they would finish the project by December 2026 as per the latest deadline since 97 per cent of the civil work has already been complete.

‘What remains is the electrical work involving the installation of automatic fare collection and ticket office machines, and platform screen doors, which we will import and install,’ he said.

He hoped that they would conduct test runs on the Motijheel-Kamalapur portion in January 2027 and go into operation on that section by February or March.

In the revised ADP for FY2025-2026, the allocation for the project is Tk1,023.48 crore, out of which Tk 419.72 crore was spent till March this year.

In the revised ADP for FY2024-25, the allocation was Tk 1,532.50 crore against which Tk 1,363.79 crore was spent while in the revised ADP for FY2023-24 the allocation was Tk 1,993 crore against which Tk 1,976.12 crore was spent.

The 31.241-kilometre long MRT Line-1 project, on the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport-Kamalapur route, will be the first underground metro rail system in Bangladesh and its construction started in 2023 with the deadline set December this year.

For the project, the government estimated the cost at about Tk 53,977.06 crore, out of which Tk 3,188.77 crore or 5.91 per cent was spent till March this year.

As per the contractors’ proposal, the estimated cost of the project reached about Tk 96,500 crore.

However, the project’s depot development work had been done so far while works on pre-negotiation contracts and tenders are going on for the rest of the works.

In the revised ADP for FY2025-2026, the allocation for the project is Tk 801 crore, out of which Tk 11.86 crore was spent till March this year while in the revised ADP for FY2024-25 the allocation was Tk 1,920.47 crore  against which Tk 707.18 crore was spent.

In the revised ADP for FY2023-24, the allocation was Tk 1,074.15 crore and Tk 383.69 crore was spent.

The construction of the 20-kilometre-long MRT Line-5 (Northern Route) project, on the Hemayetpur-Bhatara route, started on November 4, 2023, with an estimated cost of Tk 41,238.55 crore. The project completion deadline was set December 2028.

Till March this year, Tk 3,821.69 crore or 9.27 per cent of the project cost was spent.

As per the contractors’ proposal the estimated cost of the project now stands at about Tk 88,000 crore.

The project’s depot development work and works on appointing contractors, design, and tenders are going on now.

In the revised ADP for FY2025-2026, the allocation for the project is Tk 862.8 crore, out of which Tk 310.18 crore was spent till March this year.

In the revised ADP for FY2024-25 the allocation was Tk 1,191.51 crore and Tk 948.27 crore was spent while the allocation was Tk 780 crore in the revised ADP for FY2023-24 against which Tk 750.45 crore was spent.

DMTCL managing director (additional charge) Md Anisur Rahman said that the present government gave the green signal to go ahead with the MRT line projects.

They will review the proposed costs of the MRT Line-1 and Line-5 (northern route) projects which would take time, he added.

The 46.73-kilometre Dhaka Elevated Expressway project, from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to the Dhaka-Chattogram Highway at Kutubkhali near Jatrabari, was undertaken in 2011 at an estimated cost of Tk 8,940 crore and the deadline is December this year.

Bridges Division secretary and Bangladesh Bridge Authority executive director Mohammad Abdur Rouf said that the project consisted of three phases while phase two is now almost complete, and pillars are being raised under the phase three.

The overall project progress is about 70 per cent, he disclosed.

‘There has been a talk of two or three additional ramps, which might cause some delays,’ he said, adding that the deadline might extend until June next year.

In the case of the mass rapid transit lines, Professor Shamsul Hoque also said, these became very expensive because of non-competitive clauses where only the costs provided by the Japanese were accepted.

‘The current delay is happening because of efforts to go by competitive bidding,’ he said.

He further said that the government should adopt a fast-track modality to expedite these projects, involving regular monthly progress update meetings and support to resolve ground-level frictions.