PM to open 8-lane highway, Payra seaport Saturday

The inaugurations will be through a videoconference at the premier’s official residence Gonobhaban in the morning, reports BSS. The 7.2 km eight-lane highway - from Jatrabari to Kanchpur - is designed to ease traffic congestion on Dhaka-Chittagong and Dhaka-Sylhet highways. The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) implemented the project at a cost of TK1.32 billion. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will also inaugurate the construction works of Jatrabari-Mawa and Ikuria-Babubazar link road; and the upgrading of Padma Bridge link road to four-lane. The RHD and the Special Works Organisation (West) of Bangladesh Army will jointly implement the Padma Bridge link road by Aprill 2019 at an estimated cost of Tk62.52 billion, reports UNB. The 55 km highway will go through Dhaka, Munshiganj, Madaripur and Faridpur districts and have six flyovers, four railway overpasses, 15 underpasses and three interchanges. As for the inauguration of the operational activities of Payra Seaport, it will begin with unloading of goods from a commercial ship at Ramnabad channel. First ship for the port MV Fortune Bird has already reached the outer anchorage from China. It has brought 53,000 metric tonnes of stones for Padma bridge. The seaport is now able to provide a limited number of services, but that is until 2018 when it becomes fully functioning. For now, goods can be unloaded at the outer anchorage and lighterages will carry the goods to different parts of the country. The premier will also launch Rural Electrification Board’s 100 percent electricity connectivity in six upazilas. The government has a plan to bring the whole country under the connectivity network by 2021.