Bangladesh witnesses massive infrastructure development including road connectivity under the present government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
As most of Bangladesh’s National Highways are being upgraded to four-lanes, 'Intelligent Transport System (ITS)' will grow hand in hand in this untapped sector.
In a bid to ensure safer highways, Bangladesh is bringing technology into the fold to plug the gaps in the detection and tracking of reckless driving left by conventional methods. The implementation of the technology-driven 'Intelligent Transport System' will allow the authorities to elevate highway surveillance on a par with developed countries.
The government hopes that the use of technology will provide the necessary impetus for drivers to comply with traffic rules while also enabling the authorities to take prompt action against violators and expedite the post-crash response.
With the help of software and device-based ITS technology, the movement of vehicles on the road can be monitored remotely. Drivers will be able to know whether their vehicles are running within the speed limit and receive warnings when they approach it.
The 'Vehicle Detective System' will allow officials in the traffic control room to identify speeding vehicles.
The automated ITS technology is being installed to regulate traffic on two highways under two separate projects at a combined cost of around Tk 2.75 billion.
The Road Transport and Highways Division has taken the initiative to introduce the system on a 40-km stretch of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib National Highway (N8) leading to the Padma Bridge via the Dhaka-Mawa Expressway on a trial basis. It will be implemented by the Roads and Highways Department.
Meanwhile, uninterrupted ITS technology will be on hand along the 252-km highway from Gazipur's Joydebpur to Rangpur.
The Roads and Highways Department signed an agreement with Dhaka's National Development Engineers Limited (NDE) and China's Fiberhome Telecommunication Technologies Company Limited in April last year, according to SASEC's website.
Throughout the first half of 2023, the team at NDE Infratech had been busy preparing to bid for their most exciting project in the transportation sector to date. The Technical Division of the Roads and Highways Department, led by Engineer, Dr Md. Abdullah Al Mamun, has recently floated a tender for a US$25-30 million Weigh in Motion (WIM) project.
Overloaded trucks have historically been a major problem in Bangladesh. Installation of permanent axle load control stations was seen to be the best solution for enforcement. With this project, the Roads & Highway Department aims to implement 28 Axle Load Control Stations in one go, at all the major national highways across the country. The 28 locations combined will have 90 lanes of Weigh in Motion (WIM) system, consisting of 62 HS-WIM and 28 LS-WIM.
Among the major components, there will be a pre-selection sub-system at the main carriageways utilising an HS-WIM system, evasion control sub-system and the core in-station traffic management sub-system with the LS-WIM, which will also use RFID readers, ANPR cameras, VMS, Surveillance System and Automatic Lane Barriers to run the operation. There will also be a Main Control Centre to monitor the entire country’s Axle Load Control Station operations from one location.
Overloaded vehicles running across the whole country will be monitored and regulated. The scale and magnitude of this WIM project makes it unique, and it is no surprise that this tender has attracted interest from bidders across the world. The project will most likely be awarded by the last quarter of this year.
As most of Bangladesh’s National Highways are being upgraded to four-lanes, ITS will grow hand in hand in this untapped market. While companies like NDE Infratech will have the local knowledge and on-ground execution capability, they will need experienced foreign partners to work closely with the company to develop this exciting sector.
Bangladesh is now on a journey to becoming an upper middle-income country by 2031 and a developed nation by 2041. With this growth in the economy came massive public sector spending. Over the past decade, infrastructure development in Bangladesh has been booming.
The Government has recently completed building the 6.15 km Padma Bridge at a cost of US$3.6 billion, connecting the less developed southwest to the northern and eastern regions of the country. It is a construction marvel as it is the deepest bridge in the world, with piles installed as deep as 127 metres.
Agencies such as Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank, JICA, Korean Expressway Corporation are also closely involved with the development of Bangladesh’s road safety and regulations on the national highways.
