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BUDGET-ROAD-HIGHWAYS
Tk 29,442cr proposed for Road Transport and Highways Division
DHAKA, June 11, 2020 (BSS) – Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal
today proposed Taka 29,442 crore for Road Transport and Highways
Division in the budget for 2020-21 fiscal.
A total of Tk 29,274 crore proposed budget was announced for the
division in the last 2019-2020 fiscal while Tk 28,050 was kept in the
revised budget, said the finance minister while placing the national
budget session at the Jatiya Sangsad here.
“The government has laid emphasis on creating a coordinated
communication network by making a massive investment in the country’s
overall communication infrastructure comprising roads, bridges,
railways, water-ways and airways,” Kamal said.
He said, “It is important to ensure that we have a modern, safe and
environment-friendly transportation and communication infrastructure
to transform Bangladesh into a developed nation by 2041.”
The government is implementing a bunch of projects for upgrading
one thousand 140 kilometers of the country’s important regional
highways to appropriate standard and width, and upgrading district
highways to appropriate standard to improve the national transport
system and establish a standard infrastructure for road communication,
he added.
Besides, he said, as part of the plan to upgrade national highways
throughout the country into four or more lanes, the up-gradation work
of the Elenga-Hatikumrul highway into a four-lane road with service
lanes on both sides is underway.
“Physical progress in the SASEC Road Connectivity Project to
connect Bangladesh with regional and international transport networks
is 75.48 percent,” said the finance minister.
The government, he said, has completed the construction of the
first expressway of the country, an uninterrupted four-lane road with
service lanes on both sides, stretching from Jatrabari intersection in
Dhaka to Maoa and from Pachhor to Bhanga, and opened it for regular
traffic.
“In FY 2020-21, we will commence work for upgrading the
Dhaka-Sylhet highway into four-lane with service lanes on both sides
and the Rangpur-Burimari highway and Sylhet-Tamabil highway into
four-lanes, and will also commence work for constructing a bridge over
the Mongla channel and the Kewatkhali bridge over the Brahmaputra
river in Mymenshing,” he added.
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