Green highways with native trees

Green and smooth highways add to a country's economic and environmental development. Traffic gridlock-free highways play an essential role in making travel more accessible and more expedient.

Green highways reduce the impact of air pollution and dust, cooling down the streets and also integrates transportation functionality and ecological sustainability.

A good number of ordinary highways of Bangladesh are being widened into four lanes. Rebuilding of these roads will reduce travelling time, improve traffic safety and reduce emissions from unwanted petrol burning. The construction work of Chandra-Elenga is progressing rapidly, and it seems that the major tasks will be completed within 2019. Elenga-Rangpur and Elenga-Jamalpur road construction will begin very soon in 2019. After completion of road construction, various organisations and agencies come forward for tree plantation on both sides of the roads to improve the overall greenery of the country outside the natural forest areas.

However, it is very unfortunate that the authorities do not aim to achieve multi-benefits from tree plantation. Plantation of native fruits and the flowering plants would improve the roadside aesthetic value, the ecosystem and biodiversity. It will also prevent soil erosion. Flowering trees around four-lane highways would impress many with their brilliant and beautiful colours.

Therefore, I humbly request the authorities of Chandra-Elenga, Elenga-Rangpur and Elenga-Jamalpur highways to go for native tree plantation uniformly and thus let highways be colourful, pollution-free, and shelters for birds.

Kabir Uddin

Madhupur, Tangail -1996

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