Tuhin Shubhra Adhikary

China promised to provide loans for eight transport sector projects eight years ago, but only one of those has been completed so far.

Bangladesh Railway had taken up a project in 2010 to bring Tungipara of Gopalganj under the railway network without carrying out any feasibility study.

After nearly a decade of planning, the complexities surrounding a project for a rail and road bridge at Kalurghat in Chattogram are finally set to be resolved with a loan agreement to be signed this week.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is expected to provide $20.8 billion in loans to Bangladesh in the next four years as the country looks to accelerate economic growth and attain the upper-middle-income status in less than a decade.

Bangladesh and India are likely to sign a memorandum of understanding for using each other’s railway lines to boost cross-border connectivity.

Tens of thousands left Dhaka to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha with their families, with those heading north complaining of a dearth of transport, overcharging by bus operators and long tailbacks.

Roadside cattle markets and unfinished road expansion work, alongside closing all the garment factories on the same day, are likely to cause suffering to Eid holidaymakers, particularly the north-bound people.

The government has proposed to cut down budgetary allocation for road, rail and bridge sectors by around 9 percent in the next fiscal year.

Two more development projects to be implemented following a public-private partnership module under Bangladesh-Japan joint initiative have been dropped.

A whopping Tk 1.22 lakh crore was poured into Bangladesh Railway for its development over the last 16 years, but the agency still faces a crippling crisis brought by ageing locomotives, carriages, and a shortage of staff due to what experts say are poorly planned and delayed projects.

Although the expansion work of Jhenaidah-Jashore Highway is yet to gain momentum, the project authority has sought a 70 percent hike in project costs.

Bangabandhu Bridge, the second largest bridge in the country, will later this year undergo the biggest maintenance work since its opening 26 years ago.

Mongla, the country’s second largest sea port, is going to be linked to the railway network on June 1 with the launch of a commuter train on Khulna-Benapole-Mongla route.

The metro rail authority will start the feasibility study for Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Line-4 next month, which is supposed to link Dhaka with Narayanganj’s Madanpur.

With the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Shilpa Nagar expected to revolutionise the country’s trade, the roads authority is planning to make its connectivity smoother with the Dhaka-Chattogram Highway and the Chattogram Sea Port.

The metro rail authorities are likely to miss the 2030 deadline for completing two of the six planned metro lines in Dhaka as they have not yet started carrying out feasibility studies for the two lines.

The government is thinking about reviving taxi service, which is almost non-existent in Dhaka and other major cities.

The metro rail authorities have planned to construct a stable yard near the Kamalapur station, but the Bangladesh Railway argues it conflicts with a plan previously agreed upon by the two parties.

The expansion work of the Dhaka-Sylhet highway has been severely hampered due to long delays in land acquisition and the moving of utility lines.

It also revealed a trend of gradual and steady rise in road crashes and deaths this year, indicating that roads are getting riskier.