43Km Sylhet-Sheola Road: Dual carriageway to boost regional links
The government is going to turn the 43km Sylhet to Sheola Land Port road into a dual carriageway to improve regional connectivity.
The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has sent a project proposal to the Planning Commission to upgrade the two-lane road into a four-lane one, which will have service lanes on both sides too.
It is to cost Tk 4,257 crore.
All meetings and necessary scrutiny at the Planning Commission and the Road Transport and Highways Division over the proposal have already been done and the proposal is expected to be placed before the meeting of Executive Committee of the National Economic Council soon, said RHD officials.
Syed Moinul Hasan, additional chief engineer (planning and maintenance wing) of RHD, told The Daily Star yesterday, "Development of the road will improve regional connectivity."
Once implemented by December 2027, it would reduce 30 minutes of travel time.
Bangladesh Land Port Authority has already developed a port at Sheola in Sylhet's Beanibazar. India has declared Sutarkandi in Karimganj of India's Assam province as integrated check post.
Expansion of the highway will enhance cross-border trade and commerce. It would create a new scope for exporting commodities to India's "Seven Sisters," said RHD sources.
The Sylhet-Sheola highway is also a part of Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar (BCIM) Economic Corridor, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal (BBIN) corridor and SASEC corridor, they said.
It means, apart from India, economic contacts and communications will be strengthened with China, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan, said RHD officials.
Currently, the RHD is turning Dhaka-Sylhet-Tamabil highways into a four-lane ones under two separate projects. India's Meghalaya is connected with Bangladesh via Tamabil border.
"Once the Sylhet-Charkhai-Sheola corridor is developed, the regional connectivity with entire Sylhet division will be completed," a RHD engineer, having knowledge about the project, told this correspondent.
He said the improved roads would help bring in investments and flourish industries.
Of the Tk 4,257 crore cost, the World Bank is supposed to provide Tk 2,886.82 crore while the government will finance Tk 1,370.25 crore.
In June last year, the WB approved $1.03 billion of financing to help improve regional trade in Bangladesh and Nepal by reducing trade and transport costs and transit time along the regional corridors.
"While the trade between Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal grew six times from 2015 to 2019, the unexploited potential for regional trade is estimated at 93 percent for Bangladesh," said a WB's press release, quoting Mercy Tembon, then WB country director for Bangladesh and Bhutan, as saying on June 28, 2022, the day the loan was approved.