The government has taken up a project to improve cross-border connectivity between Bangladesh, India and other neighbouring countries with a view to boosting Bangladesh’s trade and commerce.
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) has given the nod to the project involving Tk 3,586 crore on Tuesday, to start upgrading the Sylhet-Tamabil highway to four lanes, with a separate lane for slow-moving vehicles
The approval came from the Ecnec meeting held with Ecnec Chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
A total of six projects involving Tk 6,628.99 crore were approved by the meeting held at the NEC Conference Room in the city's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area on Tuesday.
Of the total project cost, Tk 2,071.10 crore will come from the government, and Tk 4,593.89 crore as loan assistance.
The Prime Minister, and the Planning Minister MA Mannan joined the meeting from Ganabhaban through a video conference while some other ministers and state ministers also attended the meeting with Planning Commission members and secretaries concerned in attendance.
While briefing reporters after the meeting MA Mannan said six projects were approved Tuesday involving an overall estimated cost of Tk 6,628.99 crore.
Of the approved six projects, two are new while four are revised ones.
The planning minister said the Department of Roads and Highways will implement the Sylhet-Tamabil Highway Upgradation project by June 2025 to be implemented in Sylhet Sadar, Dakshin Surma, Jaintapur and Gowainghat upazilas.
“This highway upgradation project will establish cross-border connectivity, ease communications with the land port, economic zone and export processing zone and promote tourism as well,” he said, adding that the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) will extend Taka 2,970.55 crore as loan assistance for the project.
The project will also pave the way for accelerating Bangladesh’s export-import as well as trade and commerce with the South and East Asian countries, especially with India’s Assam and Tripura, Mannan said.
The planning minister also reiterated that the government has a plan to upgrade all the inter-district, and national highways into four-lane ones.
The overall objective of the “Improvement of the Sylhet-Tamabil Road to Four-lane Highway” project is to generate economic benefits by facilitating faster, safer and more economic links between Sylhet and Tamabil, read the project documents, he added.
Besides, the border crossing at Tamabil has the potential to generate significantly increased traffic which would have a positive economic impact for the people, he mentioned.
Mannan said further economic benefits are expected from the increased use of the road corridor by commercial traffic travelling to and from other parts of the country and cross-border traffic travelling from eastern India to Dhaka, it added.
The main project operations include construction of 56.16 km road pavements, 55.43 lakh cubic meter land work, construction of 21 bridges with a length of 1,939.84 meters, construction of 49 culverts, 10 foot-over bridges, one toll plaza, one excess load control.
Another new project approved in the Ecnec meeting is ‘Improvement of Matlab-Meghna-Dhoni Agoda Beribadh Road’ which will be implemented by June 2022 at a cost of Tk 121.93 crore.
The four revised projects are Development of Ponds and Canals across the country (1st revised) Project, Construction of Modern Food Storage Facilities (2nd revised) Project, Dhaka-Narayanganj-Demra (DND) Drainage System Development Phase-II (1st revised) Project and Expansion of Aquaculture Technology Services up to Union Level Phase-II (2nd revised) Project.
The cost of Development of Ponds and Canals project has increased by Tk 422.52 crore (The cost now is Tk 1,757.47 crore from the original cost of Tk 1334.95 crore).
The cost of Construction of Modern Food Storage Facilities project also rose by Tk 1648.98 crore (the cost now stands at Tk 3568.94 crore against the original estimate of Tk 1919.96 crore).
The cost of Drainage System Development Phase-II project has increased by Tk 741.71-crore (Now the cost stands at Tk 1299.91 crore going up from the original cost of Tk 558.20 crore;
Besides, the cost of Expansion of Aquaculture Technology Services up to Union Level Phase-II Project has increased by Tk 107.0-crore (Now the cost has increased to Tk 378.38 crore from Tk 270.58 crore in the first revision and Tk 242.28 crore in the original estimate).
