Dhaka-Sylhet Highway: Big plan for wider road

The government is going to upgrade the 209km Dhaka-Sylhet highway into six lanes, including service lanes on both the sides, under a Tk 16,918.59 crore project.

A total of 305 culverts, 66 bridges, seven flyovers, six railway over bridges and 26 footbridges will also be constructed under the project.

The Roads and Highways Department will implement the project, titled Dhaka-Sylhet Corridor Road Development, in six years, aiming to improve regional road connectivity and ensure faster and uninterrupted vehicular movement.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved the project in its yesterday's meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair. The PM joined the meeting through a video conference from the Gono Bhaban.

Of the total project cost, Tk 13,244.69 crore will come from Asian Development Bank (ADB) in loan money. The government will fund the rest, Tk 3,673.90 crore, said planning ministry officials.

Once implemented, the project will help expand the regional transport network, including the Asian Highway Network, BIMSTEC and Saarc corridors, and bring better mobility in trade and industry, the officials said.

"The road development project will open up road connectivity with Nepal, India, Myanmar and China. Our communication at the international level will get a boost," Planning Minister MA Mannan told reporters after the meeting yesterday.

"Bangladesh always turns its head and looks towards the west. Now this has to change. It is needed to go to the east horizon. And this project is the way to that," he said.

One of the major issues involving the project is its cost. Some media outlets have reported that around Tk 81 crore will be spent for the upgradation of per kilometre of the highway.

As the minister's attention was drawn to the cost and asked whether it was high, he said, "We are spending as much as required. This is not too much."

He also said the economic returns would be much higher. "Toll money will be collected …. There will also be a five-kilometre-long elevated bridge under the project."

Replying to a question, Mamun-Al-Rashid, member of the planning commission, said the project cost was not higher than that of highways under the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) project.

The Dhaka-Sylhet highway upgradation is one of the 26 projects for which China had committed $21.5 billion in soft loan. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Dhaka and Beijing was signed during the Chinese president's Dhaka visit in 2016.

But the government later decided to do the work using its own resources, following failed negotiations with a Chinese company.

Besides, there was an allegation against the Chinese company of offering bribes to a top government official to give a go-ahead to the work at inflated costs. At that time, the estimated cost of the project was Tk 11,412 crore.

However, the government finally decided to implement the project mainly with the ADB fund.

The proposal was placed before the project evaluation committee (PEC) on November 23 last year. The Development Project Plan was reconstituted following the recommendations of the PEC meeting.

Apart from upgrading the highway, two service lanes will be constructed for slow moving vehicles. The other objectives of the project are to straighten the existing curves of the highway and build necessary U-loops and intersections, said planning ministry officials.

The main project operations include 245.42 lakh cubic metres of earthworks, 72.73 lakh cubic metres of flexible pavement, 2.92 lakh cubic metres of flexible concrete pavement on service lanes, and construction of culverts, bridges, flyovers, railway over bridges, footbridges, they added.

The project will be completed between January 2021 and December 2026.