Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday opened a record number of 100 motorways to traffic in 50 districts, less than two months after the opening of 100 bridges in a single day.
From her office in Dhaka, the prime minister essentially opened the 100 motorways, ensuring a continuous and safe road network while also assisting in lowering traffic congestion and accident rates.
In the last two years, the Roads and Highways Department’s Road Transport and Highways Division completed 48 projects totaling Tk 14,915 crore to build or rehabilitate highways totaling 2,021.56 km in length.
The new highways include 32 with a total length of 653.66 km in the Dhaka division, 16 with a total length of 352.26 km in the Khulna division, 14 with a total length of 258.90 km in the Chattogram division, 15 with a total length of 203.95 km in Rangpur, eight with a total length of 196.87 km in Rajshahi, six with a total length of 142.48 km in Mymensing
One of these, the 70 km Joydebpur (Gazipur)-Alenga (Tangail) four-lane highway with service lanes on both sides, was built with foreign loans totaling Tk 3,205 crore and government funding totaling Tk 2,963.64 crore. Of these, 99 highways were developed with government funding.
Obaidul Quader, the minister of highways and bridges, spoke at the event, which was chaired by Tofazzel Hossain Miah, the PM’s principal secretary.
ABM Amin Ullah Nuri, secretary of the Road Transport and Highways Division, gave a presentation on the 100 new highways.
3,991 km of the 22,476 km of roads covered by the RHD are national highways, 4,897 km are regional highways, and 13,588 km are district roads.
The capital is connected to divisional cities, seaports, landports, and international routes by national highways. District towns are connected to land ports and river ports by regional roadways. District roads connect upazilas and district towns, or one upazila with another.
On November 7, the prime minister officially opened 100 recently built bridges with a combined length of 5,494 meters that were erected for Tk 8,79.61 crore in 25 districts across the nation.
