Bangladesh is considering development of three roads in three districts of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) targeting establishment of the Bangladesh-Myanmar road link, a move that had apparently remained shelved by the neighbouring country in the last eight years.
Official sources said, of the three roads, the 25-kilometre (km) Balukhali-Gundum road in Cox's Bazar district was approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) in last August.
Two others -- Thanchi-Modok-Likree road and Alikadam-Poamuhuri-Likree road -- are now in the process of being approved by the Planning Commission, they added. These two roads will connect the country with the Myanmar border of Napraitaung.
Sources said the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges (MoRTB) took the initiative to construct the three roads with the help of the Bangladesh Army for keeping the regional connectivity options ready before getting the positive indication from the Myanmar side to establish road connectivity.
"We want to keep our roads ready so that whenever the Myanmar government will be positive about establishing road connectivity, we can tell them about our readiness," said an official.
Preferring not to be named, he said these roads would also create a scope to be part of other regional corridors.
Sources said as India, Myanmar and Thailand (IMT) are now negotiating signing of a motor vehicle agreement, Bangladesh's scope will also be created to be integrated into the region in the future if the roads are ready.
The governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar signed an agreement to establish a friendship road through the Balukhali-Gundum route in Cox's Bazar district in 2007. But since then the Myanmar side was found reluctant to develop the 153-km road.
Bangladesh had offered to construct part of its road but the government of the neighbouring country did not respond.
Early this year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) took an initiative through its mission in Yangon to revive the shelved initiative and made a proposal to the Myanmar government afresh to develop a corridor through Alikadam of Bandarban hill district.
It is claimed that the new link will connect the India-Myanmar joint project styled Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project through a 150km road. It will in future also facilitate linking the country with the Indian state of Mizoram, Kunmin of China and some other South East Asian countries through the road infrastructure being implemented under the Kaladan transport project.
Sources of the MoFA said the government has a plan to hold foreign office consultation between the two countries in next three to four months when the connectivity issue will also be discussed.
If regional connectivity with Myanmar is established, the country will also be able to establish wider connectivity with the Southeast Asian countries, including the Chinese spring city of Kunming, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.
One of these roads is the part of the Asian Highway and BCIM (Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar) corridor.
Bangladesh and Myanmar have 200 km of common border having hilly terrains and some trouble-spots which pose challenges for both the countries to establish the connectivity.
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