The government took up a project worth nearly Tk1,000 crore to revamp 1,557km of roads around the country for better communication.
For this, the country has been divided into 10 zones namely Dhaka, Mymensingh, Chittagong, Comilla, Sylhet, Khulna, Barisal, Gopalganj, Rajshahi and Rangpur.
Under this project titled Development of District Roads, the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) will develop roads, build culverts, bridges and pavements and dig drains in various districts at a cost of Tk996 crore.
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved the projects in a meeting at the NEC conference room in Dhaka yesterday with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
Including the road development project, the total cost of the eight projects approved yesterday is Tk1,576.36 crore. Of this amount, the government will provide Tk1,560.82 crore and the relevant public agencies will contribute Tk15.5 crore from their own funds. Of the six eight are new.
These also include a Tk180.68 crore project for protecting the embankment along the Padma River that shields poet Rabindranath Thakur’s farmhouse – a historical place locally known as Kuthibari in Kushtia district – from riverbank erosion and flood.
Bangladesh Water Development Board is expected to implement the project at Kumarkhali upazila in the strict by June 2018. Apart from the poet’s farmhouse, the project also aims to protect the Shilaidah Union Parishad building, adjacent arable land and other government and private establishments.