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The government is set to endorse a Tk 7.93 billion project for the repair and maintenance of the Dhaka-Chittagong highways, just two and a half years after its construction, officials said on Monday.
The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) will go for the work as the four-lane road has developed ruts and cracks at various points, they said.
The Planning Commission is set to place the project today (Tuesday) before the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) for its approval.
The construction work of the 192-kilometre key economic corridor of Bangladesh was completed in December 2016 at a cost of Tk 38.17 billion.
RHD officials said the damage was caused to the highway due to the plying of overloaded trucks and heavy-duty vehicles.
In March 2018, the Department came up with a Tk 9.44-billion project to do the repair.
The Commission raised its objection to the necessity of the project, which proposed costs for fixing the present as well as future ruptures.
The then planning minister formed a committee comprising experts from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology to scrutinise the necessity of the repair project.
Then the RHD submitted a fresh Development Project Proposal (DPP) titled "Performance-based operation and strengthening of the Dhaka-Chittagong national highways (Daudkandi-Chittagong part)" for four years to the Commission. The cost was estimated at Tk 5.00 billion.
Later, the Project Evaluation Committee of the Commission recommended recast of the DPP.
Accordingly, the RHD has recently sent the revised proposal to the Commission for the Ecnec approval. This time cost has been raised to Tk 7.93 billion.
A senior RHD official told the FE that since there was a possibility of damage to the highway in future due to the violation of the "axel-load" rules by the vehicles, they had decided to take up the project for four years.
Asked why repair and maintenance was required for the newly-built highway, the RHD official said further damage to the road likely due to the overloading of vehicles.
"So, we are taking up the project to conduct repair and maintenance for the next four years," he added.
A senior Commission official told the FE that they would seek Ecnec approval for the project at the cost proposed by the agency concerned.
Under the project, scheduled to be completed in June 2023, the Department will go for repair and strengthening of the highway at some points.
It will involve surfacing or overlay, wearing course, root-filling, and constructing foot-over bridges for the pedestrians, and setting up median-guard post-Berrien-sign-signal.