The government of Bangladesh has approved a US$796 million loan from China Development Bank (CDB) to develop the Dhaka Elevated Expressway (DEE) PPP project.

The project concessionaire is the Italian-Thai Development PLC. It has already set up a local company named First Dhaka Elevated Expressway Company Ltd to carry out the project.

The project involves the development of a 26 km elevated expressway from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to Shanir Akhra on the Dhaka-Chittagong expressway with five connecting points to pick and drop traffic. It will be the first road PPP project in Bangadesh

The total project investment is estimated at US$1.25 billion. In addition to the loan recently approved, a total of three local banks, Sonali Bank, BRAC Bank and Modhumati Bank, have expressed their willingness to invest a total of BDT10 billion (US$126.5 million) to develop the project.

The project achieved commercial closure on 13 December 2013 when Bangladesh Bridges Authority (BBA) and the Italian-Thai Development PLC signed an agreement for the second time after the first agreement signed in January 2011 became obsolete due to change of the project's alignment.