Sylhet-Tamabil-Jaflong highway construction work to start soon

SYLHET, Nov 08: At last work on the much talked Sylhet-Tamabil-Jaflong Highway would start soon, said an official on Thursday.
The contractor has already taken preparatory measures, he added.
A project worth Tk 1.9 billion was approved at the ECNEC in June this year.
Accordingly bidding and other formalities were completed recently, informed the Executive Engineer of the Roads and Highways Department (RHD), Sylhet, Utpal Samanta.
It would take two years to complete the whole project works.
The busy road had been in a pitiable state for long with a number of pot holes and cracks in places. Especially the 16-km from Jaintapur upazila headquarters to Jaflong and Tamabil became unusable after last year's floods.
During the monsoon or even after moderate shower the whole road becomes unusable due to innumerable pot holes at places.
On the other hand, plying of overloaded trucks, carrying stones and boulders damaged the busy road, linking Tamabil border points, further.
Its importance went up with the start of full-fledged Tamabil Land Custom Station last year. Moreover, the number of tourists from different areas of Sylhet region as well as all over the country to Jaflong has increased in recent days.
There had been no major development works on the 55-km long busy highway for long years, sources alleged while several thousand vehicles of all types do ply through it. Especially the trucks, overloaded with stone have increased in recent years.
The official also said of the total, Tk 1.25 billion would be spent for the road development works on the 16 km Jaintapur-Jaflong-Tamabil part while the rest amount of Tk 65 million would be spent for setting an axle load control station near Darbast bazaar area, for construction of two inter-sections at Tamabil and Mamar Dokan area in addition to land acquisition cost for the project.
Trader Anwar Mia at Jaflong Bazar said the number of tourists is rising day by day. But they suffer much for the worn out state of the road.
The authority should try to complete the development of the highway soon, which also plays important role for transporting imported goods from Meghalaya, he said.
Cost of imported goods go up due to the additional transport charges as the road had been in a pitiable state for long, said some importers who use the Tamabil Land Custom Station.

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