Dhaka-Tangail highway set to be made 4-lane
Tuesday, 25 December 2012
Munima Sultana
The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has taken an initiative to expand Dhaka-Tangail Highway to make it a four-lane one. Upon completion of work, it will be another high-traffic national highway pushing itself into the network of the proposed Asian Highway.
Officials said the Planning Commission has already completed the development project proposal (DPP) of the 70-kilometre road expansion work, which is awaiting approval of the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC).
"Project evaluation of the DPP was also done on Sunday and we expect the project will soon be sent to ECNEC for approval," said an official of RHD's planning section.
He said part of the Dhaka-Tangail Highway has already been turned into a four-lane road, and they will help expand the rest of the road from Joydevpur to Elenga to four lanes passing through Chandra and Tangail.
The official said under the South Asia Sub-regional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) road connectivity project, the expansion work was taken in order to improve the road-use capacity on Dhaka-Tangail route as the existing two-lane roads could not take the load of increasing traffic volume.
Though the government earlier announced turning all national highways into four-lane ones, until now it has started expansion work of Dhaka-Chittagong Highway and Dhaka-Mymensigh Highway. Every year during the two Eid festivals, the long-route passengers are seen waiting for hours on both sides of the Bangabandhu Bridge across the Jamuna river due to poor road capacity.
The communications ministry and RHD officials said the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has assured of providing technical support to the regional connectivity project as the road will also help develop part of the Asian Highway-2.
Asian Highway is a network of 141,000 kilometres of roads encompassing 32 nations including Europe. Bangladesh joined the Asian Highway (AH) through two routes -- the first one starts at Benapole in Jessore and ends at Tamabil, and the second AH-2 route starts at Banglabandha and ends at Tamabil.
Of the total US$ 361 million fund, ADB will provide $238 million under its Sub-regional Road Transport Project.
The officials said the SASEC road connectivity project will also help develop the two sub-regional corridors of South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
Under the same project fund, the RHD headquarters will also be constructed at Tejgaon in the capital.
The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has taken an initiative to expand Dhaka-Tangail Highway to make it a four-lane one. Upon completion of work, it will be another high-traffic national highway pushing itself into the network of the proposed Asian Highway.
Officials said the Planning Commission has already completed the development project proposal (DPP) of the 70-kilometre road expansion work, which is awaiting approval of the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC).
"Project evaluation of the DPP was also done on Sunday and we expect the project will soon be sent to ECNEC for approval," said an official of RHD's planning section.
He said part of the Dhaka-Tangail Highway has already been turned into a four-lane road, and they will help expand the rest of the road from Joydevpur to Elenga to four lanes passing through Chandra and Tangail.
The official said under the South Asia Sub-regional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) road connectivity project, the expansion work was taken in order to improve the road-use capacity on Dhaka-Tangail route as the existing two-lane roads could not take the load of increasing traffic volume.
Though the government earlier announced turning all national highways into four-lane ones, until now it has started expansion work of Dhaka-Chittagong Highway and Dhaka-Mymensigh Highway. Every year during the two Eid festivals, the long-route passengers are seen waiting for hours on both sides of the Bangabandhu Bridge across the Jamuna river due to poor road capacity.
The communications ministry and RHD officials said the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has assured of providing technical support to the regional connectivity project as the road will also help develop part of the Asian Highway-2.
Asian Highway is a network of 141,000 kilometres of roads encompassing 32 nations including Europe. Bangladesh joined the Asian Highway (AH) through two routes -- the first one starts at Benapole in Jessore and ends at Tamabil, and the second AH-2 route starts at Banglabandha and ends at Tamabil.
Of the total US$ 361 million fund, ADB will provide $238 million under its Sub-regional Road Transport Project.
The officials said the SASEC road connectivity project will also help develop the two sub-regional corridors of South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
Under the same project fund, the RHD headquarters will also be constructed at Tejgaon in the capital.