The development work of a priority project, Daulatdia-Faridpur-Barishal highway, is yet to see any progress despite its feasibility study was completed 13 years ago.
Sources said the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) will now conduct another feasibility study afresh on the part of 152-kilometre highway to change the detailed design done in 2016.
They stressed the need for redesigning a 19km section of the highway as a recent meeting of the stakeholders raised objections against the road's passing through the Barishal city.
It recommended constructing the road bypassing the city, sources said.
"The design fault has been identified after so many years of the feasibility study," said a source, adding that a highway never goes through an urban area.
The RHD conducted the study on the priority project as part of the Dhaka-Mawa-Bhanga highway development plan in 2009 under a plan to develop the corridor linked with the Padma Bridge.
RHD officials said the project could not make progress due to a policy change for designing service roads at the same level of the highway instead of the higher level recommended earlier.
The detailed design was then conducted under the sub-regional technical project funded by the Asian Development Bank, incorporating it in 2015.
The detailed design estimated the cost of construction to be US$1.0-1.2 billion.
"Due to the change in the policy, it took a long time to complete the detailed design," said one official, preferring not to be named.
Sources said that as the first feasibility study and detailed design were done under an ADB-assisted project, the RHD has recently proposed the multilateral development bank to finance the Daulatdia-Faridpur-Barishal highway project.
However, one official said, as the scope of redesigning the second phase of sub-regional technical projects is not there, the ADB mission requested the RHD to conduct the fresh study and redesign the highway, including the bypass, with the government fund.
It would take a few more years to start the project, he added.
smunima@yahoo.com