To minimize traffic congestion in the capital, Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Mayor Annisul Huq declared construction a total of 21U-loop from Gazipur to Satrasta. The announcement came out nearly two years ago, while the promised construction time also ran out. Recently, the project sees light after managing several difficulties.
Project Director and DNCC Zone-3 executive engineer Mahbub Alam said they had started construction of six U-turn stretching from Uttara to Satrasta. Among those, the Mohakhali establishment has started to gain the visibility.
The U-loop project was taken up after a series of moves to ease the traffic snarl. Although the previous projects failed to improve Dhaka traffic, DNCC puts their hope on the new scheme. After completing those U-turn constructions, vehicles would be moving swiftly as intersections, said the project official.
The U-loop idea came at a time when nothing was found handy to cope up the gradually increasing Dhaka traffic. An engineer Kamrul Hasan introduced the idea and Mayor Annisul was convinced with that. The name, U-loop, came from the outlook of the modified intersections which is similar to English letter U. According to Hasan, his unique innovation would facilitate smooth traffic movement in the city.
The 11 designated places for U-loop are- Satrasta, Nabisco, Mohakhali bus terminal, Mohakhali flyover, Banani over-bridge, Kakoli, Uttara RAB office, Uttara House Building and Rajlaxmi to Abdullahpur. The loops will be built in three categories- A, B and D. A category covers comparatively bigger vehicles like trucks or covered vans while B category for cars and other private vehicles.
Meantime, two-lane and up-to more wider spaces are assigned as Double (D) category. The D category turns will be able to channel away small and larger vehicles at the same time.
“The project wouldn’t eat up any space from the main roads, rather the loops will take new roadside space,” claimed the project director Mahbub Alam.
The executive engineer also said they had divided the project into two phases. In the first phase, six loops will be built at a cost of Tk 12.16 crore while second phase would cover remaining five with a cost of Tk 11.20 crore.
