Ambitious National Highway 9

FE Team | Published: March 11, 2024 21:35:21

Rudyard Kipling could not be more correct when he wrote,"East is East, West is West, and never the twain shall meet". The implications of his vast oriental and occidental context are true on a mini scale in case of eastern and western parts of Bangladesh, a small country. Geographically, the 131-kilometre distance between the two parts is not even one-tenth of its counterparts in large countries. But communication-wise they are a world apart. Now the country's Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has taken up perhaps the most ambitious plan in the country's history to bridge the two wings by a highway to be named the National Highway 9 (NH9). The world has come a long way off from the time of Kipling and the socio-cultural difference between the East and West has also narrowed. People from once-colonies are now in key positions of power including the top job of the erstwhile most dominant colonial power.
Such a development was once inconceivable. It has been possible because of shared scientific and technological advancement with information and communication prevailing over the rest. Bangladesh has already joined the bandwagon of emerging nations with its economy ranking 35th in the world. There has been phenomenal communication connectivity. Indeed, the two bridges on the Jamuna and Padma have catapulted the country out of the cumbersome and time-consuming communication between the capital and North Bengal, between the country's western-southern regions and the capital. Yet, it cannot be said the development in the communication sector has been rational and satisfactory. Its railways, the cheapest and most convenient mode of transportation, have not received the priority it deserved. Even the national highways, apart from the one connecting the Padma Bridge up to Bhanga on the one side and Dhaka city on the other together with the Dhaka-Chattogram Highway, leave much to be desired for qualification to the rank of true highways. Notably, NH has yet to enter popular lexicon for obvious reasons.
So the new mega project, as envisaged to connect the country's east, west and south in between, can indeed bring the somewhat neglected southern and western regions closer to the east that has developed faster on account of its better communication with the capital and also because of the country's number one sea port. There is no doubt about the merit of the proposed highway but the cost involved may be a factor. In a riverine country with marine connectivity between Chattogram and Mongla ports, its priority certainly must be backed up by the benefits to be accrued, particularly when the Padma Bridge has facilitated road and rail connectivity.
Preferably, the six-lane superhighway that has terminated at Bhanga should be extended further up to Barishal or even Kuakata, Khulna and Jashore. Even the Khulna-Barishal portion of the proposed NH9 can be considered with due importance because of much less cost involved in it. Now that the Payra seaport has been opened, the proposed bridge over the Meghna as part of the Barishal-Laxmipur segment of the highway can wait for some time. The required river training and river engineering will be highly costly. At this economic crunch time, a gargantuan amount of investment of this order may not be wise.