Bangladesh on Thursday floated a tender seeking to upgrade a two-way road linking its key eastern land border port with India's northeast, into a four-lane dual carriageway.
The move to convert the 43-km road between Sylhet and Sheola Land Port, adjacent to Sutarkandi Land Port in Assam, India into a dual carriageway, is a demonstration of Bangladesh’s continued commitment to fortify Indo-Bangla cross border connectivity thereby, unleashing untapped potentials of bilateral and regional trade.
Khan Md Kamrul Ahsan, Project Director of Sylhet-Charkhai-Sheola Highway Improvement Project, told Dhaka Tribune on Thursday that the road would be updated to a 4-lane highway along with pavements and service roads. He said they are expecting the dual carriageway works to be completed by mid-2028 provided the physical works begin by middle of next year after completion of the tender process.
Of the Tk4,257 crore cost, the World Bank is supposed to provide Tk2,886.82 crore while the government will finance Tk1,370.25 crore.
Expansion of the highway will enhance cross-border trade and commerce. It would create a new scope for exporting commodities to the seven northeastern states of India.
The Sylhet-Sheola Highway Road segment is an important part of Bangladesh-China, India and Myanmar (BCIM) corridor. The BCIM corridor covers an estimated 440 million people in China's Yunnan province, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Seven Sisters in North-Eastern India through the combination of road, rail, water and air linkages in the region.
Bangladesh widening and expanding the road under the World Bank financed Accelerating Transport and Trade Connectivity in Eastern South Asia Project (ACCESS) to increase the efficiency and resilience of trade and transport along selected regional corridors in eastern South Asia.
The Sylhet-Sheola road expansion move comes at a time when Bangladesh is also turning Dhaka-Sylhet-Tamabil highway into a four-lane one. India's Meghalaya is connected with Bangladesh via Tamabil border.
Importance of Sheola-Sutarkandi land border
According to Bangladesh Land Port Authority (BLPA), out of 24 land ports in Bangladesh, 16 land ports are currently operational and the Sheola-Sutarkandi border trade route is one of those.
In 2023-24, Sheola Land Port facilitated over 9.56 lakh tons of import and over 7,200 tons of export. The worth of the trade could not be known from the BLPA website.
However, according to the Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI), Sutarkandi Land Port located along the international border between India and Bangladesh, at a 15 km distance from Assam’s Karimganj facilitated trade worth Tk353 crore in 2023-24. The trade volume more than doubled that what it was (Tk162 crore) in 2017-18
On the Bangladesh side, the Sheola Land Port is located on Konagram border of Dubag union of Beanibazar upazila of Sylhet district. On June 30, 2015 Sheola customs station was declared a land port.
It is expected that widening of Sylhet-Sheola highway would help enhance increased trade between northeastern regions of both Bangladesh and India.
According to a World Bank report, the existing Sylhet–Sheola 2-lane road is unsafe, with poor pavement condition, and it is overcrowded with different types of vehicles. The implementation of the dual carriageway is also important in the reduction of the number of accidents.