Highway which way?

Sounds like a pretty good idea, right? But not so attractive, it would seem, that the government would incline itself to actually take the steps necessary to ensure Bangladesh's effective participation in the initiative.

Final plans for the highway network have been under serious negotiation among the countries along the proposed route since the project was brought under the auspices of ESCAP in 1992.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

Last week twenty three countries finally signed the landmark treaty to complete the 140,000 km trans-Asian highway network that will run from Tokyo to St. Petersburg.

Bangladesh, however, was not one of them.

Once again, due to the missteps of the government, Bangladesh finds itself on the outside of a major international initiative.

The communications minister dismissed the idea that there was anything amiss in Bangladesh not being a party to the treaty that was signed with such pomp and fanfare last week.

He pointed out that the agreement can be signed until 2005, and stated that Bangladesh will sign it as soon as our proposal for a route from Teknaf to Mynamar is included in the highway network.

But the problem is that, contrary to the minister's confident assertions, there is very little likelihood of the southern route through Teknaf being considered part of the Asian Highway.

It is true that Myanmar has agreed to a road link from Teknaf into Myanmar, but it is misleading to suggest that this link road will be the solution to our Asian Highway woes.

In the first place, the road needs to be built, which experts say will take a minimum of three years. In the second place, the cost of the construction which Bangladesh has agreed to bear is estimated to be in the region of Tk 750 crore and there has been no budget allocation made for this.

So who knows when this southern link road will actually be ready.

But the main problem with the minister's statement is that there has been no discussion with Myanmar as to running the Asian Highway from Myanmar to Bangladesh through Teknaf.

Myanmar wants the southern link through Teknaf for bilateral trade with Bangladesh, but has not agreed to transnational traffic through that point, and at no time has made any kind of official statement indicating is contemplating permitting the Asian Highway to run through this southern route.

It is interesting that none in the government has been able to quote even a single official from Myanmar to back up the statement that the route from Teknaf to Myanmar will be part of the Asian Highway network.

In fact, the MoU to develop a road link between Dhaka and Yangon, signed during the recent high level talks between the two countries, makes no mention of this route being included as part of the Asian Highway and, according to well placed sources, the subject of the Asian Highway route running through Teknaf was not even raised during the recently concluded talks.

So don't hold your breath waiting for the Asian Highway to run through Teknaf to Myanmar any time soon.

Now, this is regrettable.

According to the approved route, the contemplated Bangladeshi gateway to the highway network is through Tamabil in the Northeast and Banglabandha in the Northwest. There is no direct Asian Highway route through Bangladesh to Myanmar, and there is no question that the inclusion of a southern route through Teknaf to Myanmar would be advantageous to us.

So what exactly is going on with respect to the route the Asian Highway will take -- is the Asian Highway set to skirt the route that would be most beneficial to Bangladesh or is it not?

The public deserves to know the truth about whether the Asian Highway really will run from Myanmar through Teknaf or not.

If the government has evidence to support its confident assertion that it will, then such evidence should be shared with the public.

And if the road from Teknaf to Myanmar is not being contemplated as part of the highway network, then the public should be informed of this fact and not misled into thinking that it is.

This brings us to the second question: if the southern route through Teknaf is so advantageous to us (and it is), then why has the government done such a poor job of ensuring that it will be part of the Asian Highway network?

The proposed route for the highway network has been under intense negotiation since at least the early 1990s. One would have thought that this was sufficient time for Bangladesh to have been able to table its best offer and ensure that the final route met our needs.

This kind of johnny-come-lately negotiation that we are now conducting to have the approved and agreed upon route amended after the fact obviously has little chance of success.

If it was so important to secure the southern route as part of the Asian Highway network, why was the matter left so late?

Zafar Sobhan is an assistant editor of The Daily Star.