Bangladesh is among four countries chosen for studying roads, bridges and highways to prepare road infrastructure standard for the Asian Highway for ensuring safe journey through nearly 140,000 kilometre corridor, officials said.
The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) also selected China, Korea and Thailand as participatory countries for studying road infrastructure under a project titled 'Development of Technical Standard of Road Infrastructure Safety Facilities.'
The officials said a mission of the ESCAP already visited the country last month to see for themselves the standard of roads and bridges, and reviewed safety issues by studying design and construction standard of these infrastructures.
However, the authorities concerned showed the ESCAP mission the Dhaka-Aricha road and Dhaka-Mawa road though these are not part of the Asian Highway (AH) network.
Officials said the Road and Highways Department (RHD) informed the mission of the government's latest move on road safety issues and showed the Dhaka-Aricha road and Mawa- road for taking measures against black spots.
"We have shown the block spot development work and standard being set for the roads to be connected with the Padma Bridge," said an official.
Under a Capacity Development Trust Fund Agreement with the Korea Expressway Corporation (KEC), the ESCAP Secretariat is conducting the study to improve road safety along the AH network to prepare the guideline/standard for 35 member-countries by 2017.
Noor-e-Alam, a national expert working with the ESCAP project, said the government has already started developing three corridors of the Asian Highway that will cross the country and set up 25 signs and signals at different points.
However, he agreed that due to lack of standards in these roads, the mission was shown the government's latest measures on road safety issues.
The mission, while meeting the RHD and concerned ministries, said 35 points of road infrastructure facilities will be proposed for the standard of the AH network.
Three AH routes will cross the country through India. AH 2 will cross the country through Banglabandha-Hatikamrul-Dhaka-Kanchpur-Sylhet-Tamabil. The AH 1 and AH 41 will have link with the two port cities. The AH41 will also be linked with Myanmar and Thailand.
Bangladesh joined the Asian Highway in 2009 and the Trans-Asian Railway in 2006.
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