The authority of Dhaka Elevated Expressway today opened the entrance ramp at Banani, around a month after the tollbooth was torched amid violence centring the student movement.
“We opened one of the four tollbooths at the ramp at 5:00pm today and is collecting toll manually,” Captain (retd) Hasib Hasan Khan, manager (operations and maintenance) of First Dhaka Elevated Expressway Company Ltd (FDEE), which operates the expressway, told The Daily Star.
He said they will open manual operation of three other booths there within a few days.
Hasib mentioned that they were optimistic about opening the Mohakhali entrance ramp within a week. Tolls will be collected manually, he added.
He however could not say when the exit ramp at the FDC gate (Karwanbazar) could be opened as one of the pillars there was torched.
Miscreants torched the Banani toll booth on July 18 and the Mohakhali toll booth the following day amid unrest centring the quota reform movement, causing the suspension of its service.
The authority resumed the operation of the expressway, except for the three ramps, from August 11.
Before the suspension, over 50,000 vehicles used the flyover daily on average, and the number of users remains almost the same now, he said.
