The expansion of 214-kilometre Dhaka-Sylhet Highway into four lanes with additional two service lanes is likely to start in July this year. Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader have confirmed this. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide the fund for the 220 kilometers highway. The estimated cost of the project is Tk 20,000 crore.
The minster came up with this observation after a meeting with ADB’s Country Director Manmohan Parkash at his secretariat office in the capital on Monday. He said, “We have discussed about upgrading the existing two-lane Dhaka-Sylhet road to four lanes with two service lanes. This will be similar to an expressway where the project will have eight flyovers, 22 overpasses, five railway overpasses, 69 bridges, 10 underpasses, 29 footbridges, and others.”
“The ADB country director came to me to discuss about a few projects including South Asian Sub-Regional Economic Co-operation (SASEC), the opening of Dhaka Alenga project which is under the SASEC Road Connecting Project. Its work is almost complete,” he added. “By March we will finalize the Detail Project Proposal (DPP). Following some formalities, the DPP will be sent to the planning commission. Upon getting the planning commission’s approval, we will go for physical construction by July this year,” he hoped.
The minister further said, “ADB has approved the project, they said to start purchase procedure after completing the necessary formalities. There is no fund crisis.” As per the project information, the highway will now have slow-moving lanes on both sides, and road curves will be straightened to ensure more speed.