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Bangladesh has invested a huge amount of money in the road-rail infrastructures of the Dhaka-Chattogram corridor during the last few decades, but seamless movement of passengers and cargo is yet to be ensured to meet the growing needs.
The failure has prompted the business leaders and economists to recommend developing elevated structures on the entire corridor, particularly to facilitate increased cargo movements to and from the fast developing economic hub of the country.
They put forward the suggestion at a roundtable on 'Investment for Infrastructure Develop-ment', organised by the International Chamber of Commerce, Bangladesh (ICCB) at a city hotel on Saturday.
Planning Minister MA Mannan was present at the event as chief guest, with ICCB President Mahbubur Rahman in the chair.
Professor of Civil Engineering Department of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology M Shamsul Hoque presented the keynote paper, stressing on the development of access control highways not only on the Dhaka-Chattogram corridor, but also on all other highways across the country to make sure the characteristics of the thoroughfares.
Prime Minister's former Principal Secretary Abul Kalam Azad, ICCB Executive Board Member Mir Nasir Hossain, President of American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh (AmCham) Syed Ershad Ahmed, ICCB Vice President AK Azad and economist Dr Mustafa K Mujeri spoke as the panel speakers while businessmen, bankers and economists were present at the roundtable.
The speakers observed that the investment made so far mainly on the road infrastructure and without building any alternative roads to meet the Chattogram port's demand for multimodal transport network though cargo handling of both exports and imports increased significantly over the years.
Widening the highway from four-lane to six or eight lanes would not help solve the traffic congestion as those have been built with lack of proper planning and designing, and lapses at the implementation stages, they viewed.
The planning minister, however, said a heavy investment has also been made on the Dhaka-Chattogram railway sector while work on developing the double track is more than 80 per cent complete.
He admitted that some of the investment was wrong due to lack of adequate knowledge and consciousness at the beginning and stressed the need for holding consultations with the stakeholders concerned at the planning stage. He also emphasised on the cost regulation than that of cost cutting.
Dr Shamsul Hoque, also a director of Accident Research Institute, highlighted various causes of downsizing the characteristics of highways from the planning and design and said the level of services cannot be ensured without access control while elevated structures may help solve many bottlenecks in the investment.
Though the expressway concept has become popular in the world after 1905, he said its absence prompted building many faulty infrastructures and placed the country in the backseat of global ranking on infrastructure.
The BUET professor said a sheer wastage of investment is visible due to planning-and design-stage faults that have failed to ensure signal-free roads, and caused a captive like situation at the crossing points.
He proposed setting strategies like 'look globally, think locally' for ensuring smart development by considering lifecycle cost and environment-resilience as well as social fabrics, and recommended going for unitary authority to integrate planning of road, rail and waterways infrastructures.
The ICCB President highlighted the future traffic demand to be created on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway after the completion of some mega projects like Dhaka Elevated Expressway and the 3rd Terminal of the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport and Karnaphuli Tunnel.
He pointed out that the transport infrastructure is a critical enabler of growing industrialisation and economic development, and said a seamless transport network enhances economic mobility and industrial investment through various dynamics and improves competitiveness.
He recommended making investment of well over US$100 billion to build ports and roads, set up rail lines for management of goods, increase power generation and distribution capabilities, provide utilities and services to meet the ever-increasing demands of the economy.
Mr Rahman expected the Dhaka-Chattogram expressway to establish an effective and smooth connectivity within the country and the region comprising Nepal, Bhutan and the northeastern states of India.
He also explained the importance of this route considering the port connectivity, Matarbari economic hub of BIG-B, BCIM and potential connectivity within the BIMSTEC and SASEC through Asian Highway.
Mr Nasir Hossain said that proper investment in the corridor is likely to bring multiple benefits including reduction of lead time, operational costs and environmental benefits.
The AmCham President highlighted the need for ensuring smooth supply chain and port-handling capacity to tap not only the domestic market but also the international market, and said infrastructure investment on Inland Container Depot is necessary along with the elevated expressway.
Dr Mujeri stressed on conducting proper feasibility studies to find the best solution to the infrastructures like the elevated expressway, and said proper planning can check the cost-and-time overrun in the project and find the best solution for the country.
Other speakers also highlighted the importance of the proper planning, accountability of bureaucrats and unitary authority for all kinds of infrastructures for ensuring ownership of the projects and making the projects bankable.