The Bangladeshi government Sunday signed a contract with a Chinese consortium to turn a major road in the eastern part of capital Dhaka into a four-lane expressway.

Abdus Sabur, chief engineer of Bangladesh's Roads and Highways Department (RHD), and a representative of the consortium of China Communications Construction Company Ltd and China Road Bridge Corporation signed the contract at a ceremony in capital Dhaka.

The Chinese consortium will implement the construction work of the four-lane project on the public private partnership (PPP) basis.

Under the deal, the Chinese consortium will build and maintain the expressway for the next 25 years under the PPP model.

The consortium will invest 20.94 billion taka in the project, while the Bangladeshi government will invest 12.09 billion taka. (1 U.S. dollar equals about 86 taka)