Govt to widen road for transhipment

The government will widen a narrow 51-kilometre road from Ashuganj river port to Akhaura land port to four lanes for smooth transhipment of Indian goods.

Scheduled to be complete by 2020, the construction will cost Tk 3,568 crore, 63 percent of which will come from an Indian line of credit.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved the project on Tuesday.

The project has four parts. The first, from the river port to the Ashuganj intersection on the Dhaka-Sylhet highway (0.65 kilometres), is a paved road at present.

Trucks carrying local goods remain parked on both sides and transportation of heavy goods in this state may cause severe traffic jam.

The second part stretches till the Sarail intersection in Brahmanbaria (11.56km). Though currently in good shape, heavy traffic will lead to a tailback.

The third section, from Sarail to Dharkhar (27km), is now in a dilapidated condition. Trucks carrying goods from Comilla and Chittagong keep busy a length of road of 18km till Sultanpur via Brahmanbaria. The road might not be fit for increased traffic.

The last part is from Dharkhar to the land port (11.31km) where now exists a narrow road.

A 10-km stretch from Sultanpur to Akhaura is now in good condition having been improved with Indian finance.

However, the road is narrow and has several dangerous turnings. The culverts are narrow too. Some 200 trucks ply the road each day for carrying goods of Bangladeshi exporters.

Vast areas will have to be acquired to widen the road. But locals oppose the acquisition.

According to the planning ministry proposal, about 108 hectares of land would have to be acquired and people living there resettled.

Under the project, 16 bridges, 36 culverts, 10 foot over bridges, two underpasses and two rail overpasses will be either built or rebuilt.

Transhipment through the Ashuganj port started for the first time in June last year but not much could be transported for the poor condition of roads.

The first consignment of 1,004 tonnes of rods brought from Kolkata to the Ashuganj port on a Bangladeshi ship was carried to warehouses in Agartala, Tripura.

This took over one month, a sign that the infrastructure is not yet ready for large scale transhipment of Indian goods.

After the Awami League-led government came to power in 2009, India began pushing for the multi-modal transit system.

India's aim was to use Angtihara, the last checkpoint on its maritime border with Bangladesh, to carry goods to Ashuganj through the river route.

In 2010, Ashuganj was announced a port of call for transhipment.

That same year, a move was made to build a modern inland container depot with Indian credit on 28 acres of land on the banks of the Meghna river adjacent to an Ashuganj food silo.

India was to provide Tk 250 crore for building the container terminal but there has been little progress.