The government has planned to construct and upgrade 2,000 kilometres of land transport network to boost cross-border trade and establish greater connectivity across South Asia.
A total of 22 projects including eight for railway have already been chalked out under the proposed Sub-Regional Transport Project Preparatory Facility. Of them, projects covering about 300-km network will be ready for implementation by 2012 while the rest by 2013.
The government yesterday entered a $23 million technical assistance loan agreement with the Asian Development Bank paving the way for taking up the planned projects. The total cost of the projects has been estimated at $6.45 billion.
Economic Relations Division (ERD) Secretary M Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan and ADBs Country Director Thevakumar Kandiah signed the deal at a ceremony at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in the capital.
The loan will be used for proper feasibility study, design and ensuring implementation of the projects, noted the ERD secretary adding, many projects are either being delayed or could not be implemented due to flawed feasibility study and design.
The road projects include Chittagong-Coxs Bazar-Teknaf road, 374-km Petrapole (India)-Benapole-Jessore-Magura-Daulatdia-Paturia-Dharkar-Akhaura-Agartala (India), 664-km Phulbari (India)-Banglabandha-Hatikumrul-Mongla, 286-km Dawki/Tamabil-Sylhet-Dhaka, 215-km Akhaura-Dharkar-Comilla-Chittagong, 138-km Burimari-Rangpur, 60-km Dhaka-Mawa-Bhanga and 219-km Sonamasjid-Rajshahi-Jamuna Bridge roads.
The 222-km Doulatdia-Magura-Jhenaidah-Jessore-Khulna National Highway, 157-km Hatikamrul-Rangpur National Highway, 48-km Khulna-Mongla road with link to Dhigraj to Mongla Ferry Ghat, 286-km Dhaka (Katchpur)-Bhairab-Jagadishpur-Shaistaganj-Sylhet-Tamabil, 138-km Rangpur-Teesta-Burimari (Lalmonirhat) and 204-km Sonamasjid-Rajshahi-Hatikamrul roads will be upgraded into four lanes.
Among the sub-regional railway projects are construction of 160-km Dhaka-Mawa-Bhanga-Jessore rail link, 53-km Khulna-Mongla Port rail line, 128 km single line metre gauge railway track from Dohazari to Coxs Bazar via Ramu and Ramu to Gundum near Myanmar border, railway bridge with provision of dual gauge double track over Jamuna river and strengthening or re-construction of Hardinge Bridge to allow trans-Asian traffic.
Replacement and modernisation of railway signalling system of 20 stations between Iswardi-Parbatipur section, five stations between Rajshahi-Abdulpur section and 15 stations between Darsana-Khulna section in the west zone of Bangladesh Railway will be done under a separate project.
According to the agreement, the amount is a concessionary Asian Development Fund (ADF) loan with a repayment tenure of 32 years including a grace period of eights years. The interest rate is 1 percent during the grace period and 1.5 percent thereafter.
These projects focus on priority transport corridors identified in the Saarc Regional Multimodal Transport Study and also with the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (Bimstec) countries.
