BD segment of Asian Highway yet to be upgraded as required

Munima Sultana | Published: November 01, 2013 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

The works for upgradation of only 4.0 per cent of the road network, falling within the territory of Bangladesh under the Asian Highway (AH) project, up to the class-1 standard project have so far been completed.
This demonstrated a very low level of performance on Bangladesh's part to operationalise the AH during the last three years, according to observers.
Bangladesh became a part of the 141,000-kilometre (km) road network under the AH project in 2009.
Many other partner-countries of the AH project, such observers noted, have improved the conditions of the roads, passing through their respective countries, to the standard of an expressway.
But most parts of the roads in Bangladesh as far as the AH project is concerned, remain at the class-II and III levels, which means that these are of regional and zilla-level standards, the sources said.
They said out of the 1,757km road in Bangladesh, set to be part of AH, 81km have been turned into four-lane or class-1 road.
The rest of the network, 1,617km in length, falls under class-III category and 59km under class-II one in Bangladesh, they added.
"Countries like Georgia and Azerbaijan have also significantly developed their parts of the highway despite being the latest signatories to the AH project. But Bangladesh is yet o show any noticeable sign of upgrading its parts of the AH," said an official on condition of anonymity.
Many partner-countries of the AH project have started putting road-signs and signals of AH routes for their respective people to appreciate its priority and importance.
However, officials at the ministry of communications (MoC) said the 261-km highways, which are under-construction such as those of four-lane ones, would soon be made part of the Asian Highway.
The Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane road is among the under-construction highways to be added to the part of the AH-41.
The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) is now studying 977km-long roads of the AH network in the country to upgrade them into four-lane ones. Â
A feasibility study and detailed design work are going on under Sub-regional Transport Project Preparatory Facility, the officials added.
The RHD, soon after the country became a member of the AH network, planned to expand the key highways and bridges under 23 projects at a cost of Tk 158.91 billion to link them with the AH, according to sources.
But the projects are yet to see light of the day.
The expanded road network will link the country with the AH through Sylhet, Jessore and Panchagarh borders.
One major objective of the AH project is to help boost trade and economic growth by ushering in a new era of connectivity with the continent's top powerhouses, the sources pointed out.
The MoC officials said they have recently placed the country's progress report on the Bangladesh part of the AH project at a recent meeting of the working committee of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), held in Bangkok.
"We will now proceed in accordance with the decisions of the meeting, by taking measures like road safety, signs, signals and upgrading roads to expressways," said one official who attended the meeting.
As part of the decisions taken at the Bangkok meeting, the ministry will take measures to place signs like 'AH' on the 1757 km road soon.
The UNESCAP organises the meeting of the working committee on the AH project every two years to review the partner-countries' progress.
Bangladesh joined the Asian Highway in July 2009, five years after the Bangkok-based UNESCAP started the world's largest transportation network, encompassing 32 nations including Europe,
The ESCAP has proposed Bangladesh to join the Asian Highway through two routes. The first one starts at Benapole in Jessore and ends at Tamabil, which is known as AH-1. The second, the AH-2, route starts at Banglabandha and ends at Tamabil.
A sub-regional route called AH-41 has also been envisaged for connecting the Mongla and Chittagong seaports with Myanmar through Teknaf border.
The Inter-governmental Agreement on the Asian Highway Network was adopted on November 18, 2003, at a meeting in Bangkok. It entered into force on July 04, 2005.