Korea Expressway Corporation (KEC), a South Korean firm, has received the government’s nod to install and operate the toll collection system for three bridges on the Dhaka-Mawa-Bhanga expressway.
“We’ve given our “in principle” approval to the proposal of the Road Transportation and Highway Division to appoint the KEC for installation and operation of the Intelligent Transport System (ITS) on the Dhaka-Mawa-Bhanga expressway”, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal told reporters after the cabinet body meeting, reports UNB.
Kamal presided over the high-powered committee meeting on Thursday.
Briefing on the outcomes of the meeting Additional secretary of the Cabinet Division Md Shamsul Arefin informed that the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has been funding the project to install the ITS on the Dhaka-Mawa-Bhanga expressway to facilitate toll collection from the three bridges including the multipurpose Padma Bridge on the highway in their crossing.
He noted that the KEC will work as a service provider for the operation and maintenance of the ITS where revenue collection will be fully automatic.
The vehicle GPRS system will be utilised in the automatic toll collection system, he added.
Shamsul, however, did not give any detail of the financial involvement in the contract.
He said the proposal will come again to the Cabinet Division for the final approval of the Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase where details of the contract will be placed.
Officials said the ITS is a part of the project titled: “Improving the reliability and safety on national highway corridors of Bangladesh”.
The project aims to make the road transport infrastructure of Bangladesh safer, reliable, and sustainable; use ICT for better, efficient and effective traffic management; and enhance the institutional capacity of RHD for road and traffic management.
The officials said the KOICA has been supporting the government with a budget of $8.9 million from 2020-2023 for the establishment of ITS master plan, architecture and standard, implementation of pilot project, capacity building of RHD, RTHD and other relevant organisations of the government of Bangladesh.