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Dhaka-Sylhet highway to be upgraded to six-lanes

Construction agreement signed


Published : 09 Feb 2023 12:37 AM

Dhaka - Sylhet highway will be improved from exisitng four lanes to six lanes, officials said yesterday. To this end several agreements were signed on Wednesday detailing construction works of the highway.

A work contract has been signed under SASEC Dhaka-Sylhet Corridor Road Development Project DS-5.  The highway construction in this contract extends from Sarail Intersection to Budhanti Bus Stand.

Three companies of China and Bangladesh will jointly implement the construction work of Lot No DS-06 of the project WLP-03 package under the Directorate of Roads and Public Ways under the Department of Road Transport and Highways in the 'SASC Dhaka-Sylhet Corridor Road Development'. 

On Wednesday  the contract of work package-3 under the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) Dhaka-Sylhet Corridor road development project was signed at Sonargaon Hotel in the city. 

Project Director AK Mohammad Fazlul Karim, R&H Additional Chief Engineer (Comilla Zone) Abu Hena Mohammad Tareq Iqbal, Liu Xiaomei on behalf of Higo-Mir Akhtar and Zhang Liang on behalf of CEITIS-SLGC-PDL signed the agreement.

Minister of Road Transport and Bridges Obaidul Quader, Minister of State for Civil Aviation and Tourism Mahbub Ali, Member of the Standing Committee on Road Transport and Bridges Ministry Principal Roshan Ara Mannan, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PRAN-RFL Group Ahsan Khan Chowdhury, Secretary of Road Transport and Highways Department ABM Amin Ullah Noori, Country Director of Asian Development Bank (ADB) Edimon Jinting assigned to Bangladesh, Chief Engineer of Directorate of Public Roads Md. Isaac were present on this occasion. 

The contract signing ceremony was presided over by Additional Project Director Md. Machum Sarwar.

A total of 19.1 km flexible pavements will be constructed from Budhanti Bus Stand to SM Spinning Mill under Lot 6 of Package-3. Its contract price is Tk 1 thousand 85 crore 34 lakh. The work will be jointly implemented by PDL and two Chinese institutions. In this lot, 25 culverts, each having length of 155 meters, seven bridges each having length of 347.53 meters, 3.883 kilometers of drains, bus bays of 1120 square meters and service lane rigid pavement will be constructed. Besides, two foot bridges will be constructed under this package.

A total of 15.7 km flexible pavement will be constructed from Sarail Intersection to Budhanti Bus Stand under Lot No. DS-5. Its contract price is Tk 1 thousand 232 crore 95 lakh. A total of 11 culverts, 11 bridges, an over pass, bus bays and rigid pavements in service lanes etc will be constructed. Besides, two foot bridges will be constructed under this package.

Due to the increase in economic activities, several economic zones are going to be established around this highway where local and foreign investments will accelerate the economic growth of the country. At present, the two-lane highway cannot handle the increasing traffic. 

As a result of this, on the one hand, there is loss of life and property due to the increase in road accidents, on the other hand, the travel time is increasing due to traffic congestion in various locations, which is acting as an obstacle in the way of development.

Due to its geographically strategic location, the Dhaka-Sylhet highway is part of the Asian Highway (AH-1 and AH-2), BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multisectoral, Technical and Economic Cooperation) Corridor (Corridor-3) and SAARC Highway Corridor (SHC-5) an important part.