Seven high ways coming under toll

Syed Nasir Hossain : A total of seven more roads and highways are coming under toll shortly.
The Roads Directorate is currently collecting tolls from vehicles on four roads in the country.Along with this, the organization has decided to bring seven more roads under toll.The roads are Dhaka-Rangpur, Dhaka-Sylhet, Sylhet-Tamabil, Dhaka-Chittagong, Bhanga-Benapole, Bhanga-Barisal and Dhaka Bypass. Among them, toll collection may be started first on the Dhaka-Rangpur highway. This information is known from the sources of the Department of Road Transport and Highways and the organization under it.
Development of Dhaka-Sylhet, Sylhet-Tamabil and Dhaka Bypass highways is ongoing.Once the work is completed, toll collection will start from the vehicles plying on this road.
Dhaka-Chittagong toll collection will start after the highway is upgraded to Expressway.Similarly, after upgrading to four lanes, toll collection will start on Bhanga-Benapole and Bhanga-Barisal highways.
All the seven highways for which tolling has been decided are classified as ‘Important Highways’.
According to the toll policy of 2014, the base toll for vehicles on these roads is Tk 2 per kilometer.This policy is currently being revised.Consumer Price Index (Transport) will be adjusted every year with the base toll once the revised draft policy gets final approval.That is, if the consumer price index increases, the toll rate will increase every year.
A total of 13 categories of vehicles have been identified for toll collection in both the existing and draft revised policies.Toll rates vary by vehicle.The highest toll is fixed for ‘Trailer’ category motor vehicles.On the other hand, the lowest toll is fixed for vehicles like rickshaws, vans, bicycles, wheelbarrows;which are not motorized.
According to the sources of the Directorate of Social Affairs, among the new roads, toll collection may start first on the Dhaka-Rangpur highway.Meanwhile, the Jaydevpur-Elenga section of the highway has been upgraded to four lanes.There are two separate service lanes on both sides.The highway from Elenga to Rangpur is being developed similarly.
According to the fixed period, the development of the highway will be completed in December this year.After the completion of the Elenga-Rangpur section, toll collection can be started on the entire Dhaka-Rangpur highway, according to the engineers of the Directorate of Sewage.
On the other hand, Dhaka-Sylhet and Sylhet-Tamabil highways with separate service lanes are also being upgraded to four lanes.Among them Sylhet-Tamabil highway is scheduled to be completed in June 2025 and Dhaka-Sylhet highway in December 2026. Dhaka Bypass Highway is being upgraded to four lanes through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) system.The under construction 48 km long road starts from Joydevpur and extends to Madanpur in Narayanganj via Devgram, Bhulta.
The construction of the four-lane expressway and separate lanes for slow traffic on both sides is expected to be completed by June this year.According to the PPP agreement, the contractor will collect toll from the road after 25 years of construction.
On the other hand, the road from Bhanga in Faridpur to Jessore via Benapole and from Bhanga to Barisal to Kuakata through separate projects has been taken up by the Directorate of Sewage.After upgrading to four lanes, toll will be collected from these two roads as well.
The Department of Sewage is planning to upgrade the four-lane Dhaka-Chittagong highway expressway.For this purpose, a survey is currently underway, which is scheduled to be completed next March.After the survey, the engineers of the directorate indicated to start the development work of the highway soon.
After the expressway is upgraded, toll collection will start from this road as well. When asked about the decision to collect tolls on seven highways, Chief Engineer of the Directorate of Sewage Syed Moinul Hasan told, “But we are not starting toll collection from these roads now.”First, the necessary facilities on the roads will be developed.The work of toll collection will be started only after making access to the roads as controlled, keeping alternative roads like service lanes, constructing infrastructure like toll plazas.
At present, Roads department collects tolls on the 55 km long Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Highway (Dhaka-Bhanga Expressway), the 50 km long Hatikumrul-Banpara highway, the nearly 14 km long Chittagong port link road and the 74 km section of the Dhaka-Sylhet highway from Jagdishpur to Sherpur.In the last fiscal year 2022-23, the toll collected from four highways was Tk 213 crore.