The Government of Bangladesh, though the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges (MORTB), has launched a tender process to hire a transaction advisor for the Dhaka - Chittagong Expressway PPP project.

A team of international consultants, as a consortium of firms, is already assisting the MORTB. The transaction advisor will work in close conjunction with the engineering consultants, with the objective to:

• refine the PPP model and structure,
• prepare bidding documents for the appropriate PPP model, and
• assist the MORTB in carrying out stakeholder consultations, including with developers, financial institutions, and government, in structuring, formalizing, procuring, and concluding the PPP contract.

The total budget available for the services is US$545,848. The services will be provided over a period of twenty four months from May 2015 to April 2017.

The Dhaka-Chittagong stretch of the N1 is the busiest road in Bangladesh. Currently, it is limited to two lanes of traffic for most of its length. However, the government has plans to expand the Dhaka-Chittagong stretch to four lanes.

The highway forms a critical component of the proposed Asian Highway and the Central-South-East Asian economic corridor, including initiatives such as BCIM and the New Silk Road. It therefore requires a vast development and expansion program to accommodate regional demand for the use of Chittagong Port and Bangladeshi transport networks.