Bangladesh has initially identified around 80 large pieces of communication infrastructure for accommodation in an under-formulation master plan to be implemented by 2050 for ensuring seamless and alternative connectivity across the country.
Bridges, tunnels, elevated expressways, etc. are included in the list and many of such future ones would be even larger in length than the existing ones, according to an interim report on the plan shared recently.
Officials said the Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) has identified the country's future communication infrastructures that have already been marked on all existing national corridors, major rivers, and cities after conducting a preliminary study.
However, these infrastructures are still at the proposal level and are expected to be finalised with the formulation of the master plan by June next year.
The BBA is responsible for carrying out all necessary measures like technical research, feasibility study, development planning, detailed design, project implementation, monitoring, evaluation, operation and maintenance of over 1.5 km-long bridges, river tunnels, elevated expressways and related flyovers, causeway & ring roads.
Since its establishment in 1985, the BBA has completed two largest bridges - the 4.8 kilometre Jamuna Bridge in 1995 and 6.15 km Padma Bridge in 2022.
It has also been constructing the country's first elevated expressway over Dhaka city under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative and the first river tunnel under the river Karnaphuli.
However, the BBA has long been trying to include subways under its mandate through amending the BBA Act after conducting a study on the Dhaka city subway network last year.
However, it is yet to get a nod in this regard and, sources said, the subways of other major cities are proposed to be included in the master plan.
The entire country is already connected with bridges over all rivers, leading the government to go for developing alternative bridges or new connectivity between different parts of the country.
Meanwhile, the BBA started conducting a feasibility study on construction of three more bridges of over 8.0 km length which are considered to be alternative connectivity or direct link with different districts, bypassing the capital Dhaka.
These are planned to be constructed over the Meghna, Kalabodor and Tetulia rivers in the south and southeastern regions.
In 2022, the BBA started conducting the study on the proposed master plan by appointing a consultant, comprising a consortium of firms from Spain, Japan, South Korea and Bangladesh.
The consortium is supposed to submit the final report by June 2024 through a comprehensive analysis of the future transport demand, considering the scenario of a High-Income Country by 2041, as well as focusing on the mandates of the BBA.
However, the BBA initially planned to prepare the master plan for 2020-2050 to achieve the Vision 2041. However, the study started late and the plan would be ready by next year, with a proposal to extend the time of implementation of the plan from 30 years to 50 years.
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