The embattled BRT is hopeful about the completion of major infrastructure for the dedicated bus corridor from Joydevpur to the Airport by December.
Uncertainty looms large ahead of the resumption of construction shortly as the work was suspended following a recent fatal accident.
Dhaka BRT Company Ltd is yet to get the safety plan from the two Chinese contractors of the project, BRT managing director (MD) M Shafiqul Islam claims.
The companies are now more serious than before which makes them hopeful to complete the work timely.
"If we look at the work remaining pending, it's now possible to realise by using cent per cent workability of the two Chinese contractors which was never possible to use before the accident."
Mr Islam said this to a group of journalists on Friday.
But he says without ensuring total safety compliance, contractors will not be allowed to work on any construction site.
The MD was briefing journalists at Joydevpur crossing point amid heavy traffic and under heavy flyover structure after BRT board members visited the site to see for themselves the challenges facing the project.
The board members, who represent the BUET, Gazipur City Corporation and FBCCI, query about the project's development and challenges to understand the level of safety measures needed to ensure the work free from any future construction hazard.
The fatal accident, which took the lives of five members of a family near a flyover on August 15, made the board more cautious about the project's future safety plan.
The FE talks to some of them and finds a majority of the board members concerned about the trouble facing the road users for long.
Roads and Highways Department (RHD) chief engineer AKM Manir Hossain Pathan, project directors of RHD and Bangladesh Bridges Authority, and representatives from the Chinese companies accompanied them.
About any action to be taken against the Chinese companies for the damage and accident caused, Mr Islam says the recommendation of the enquiry committee will be followed properly.
He once again asserts that the companies will be allowed to start work only when the consultants approve 100-per cent safety measures by them.
"Earlier, the contractors used to agree whatever were asked for, but never followed. Now, we all are serious," the MD says.
If over 80-per cent overall progress has been made possible in non-cooperative manner, he adds, it is possible to complete major infrastructure in the next four months.
But other work may be completed by March, Mr Islam says, adding that the bus service may be possible in June 2023.
Mr Islam told journalists that several meetings were held with financier Asian Development Bank, secretaries and others where the Chinese companies assured them of meeting their fund constraints, manpower shortages and the issue of full safety measures.
The RHD took the BRT corridor project in 2013 along with BBA and Local Government Engineering Department, but the fieldwork started in 2017 and 2018.
Overall progress was recorded at 79.24 per cent. The RHD's part, which is a 16-kilometre surface road, is recorded at 82.09 per cent.
The FE finds that a safety fence has been developed in some parts of the corridor.
Major challenges remain in constructing the flyover at Joydevpur crossing where hundreds of thousands of vehicles from different districts cross day and night.
