Korea International Cooperation Agency (Koica) will help Bangladesh improve safety in its national highway corridors by introducing Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) that will also reduce traffic congestion on the highway.

Koica will provide USD 8.93 million grant to develop the master plan for ITS and execute a pilot project.

The project would cover the incident management system, traffic information system, traffic enforcement system, speed enforcement system, traffic management centre, servers and communication equipment, and strengthening the capacity of Bangladeshi officers, Koica said yesterday.

In response to Bangladesh government's request, a Koica pre-survey mission from South Korea visited Bangladesh from January 6 to 15 for the project proposal.

The team had a series of discussions with all the relevant stakeholders including Bangladesh Road Transport and Highways Division (RTHD), Roads and Highways Department (RHD), highway police, BRTC, city corporation and other development partners.

The team also visited the Dhaka-Chattogram highways (N1) by road to see the current highway road condition.

Koica Country Director in Bangladesh Joe Hyun-Gue and Secretary of RTHD Nazrul Islam signed a document yesterday on behalf of their organisations in the city.