Tuhin Shubhra Adhikary

Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) today (June 30, 2022) reset bus fares for 15 routes – via Dhaka-Mawa-Bhanga Expressway, raising the fares by Tk 31–Tk 66.

The government is going to impose toll on vehicles for using the Dhaka-Mawa-Bhanga Expressway from July 1, a move that will push up transport costs.

Six minutes was all it took a BRTC bus to cross the 6.15km bridge over the Padma river yesterday.  

“We will not bow to anybody.”

One afternoon in October 2011, Md Shafiqul Islam, then an additional chief engineer at the Roads and Highways Department, was tensely pacing the corridors of the erstwhile communications ministry, contemplating joining the Padma bridge project.

There are some epic moments that make a nation proud.

Thanks to the opening of the Padma bridge today, the people and businesses in south-western regions of Bangladesh will finally have road access to the rest of the country.

This is a dream bridge which will not only establish the long-awaited direct road and rail communications between the capital and south-western parts of Bangladesh but also contribute to greater connectivity and trade among Asian countries.

Motorcycles should be banned on national highways to reduce the number of accidents, recommended a committee that was formed by the government to probe road crashes.

No truck or covered van would be allowed to operate on highways connected to the Padma Bridge -- from the morning of June 24 to that of June 26 -- to facilitate the inauguration of the Bridge on June 25.

With the air communications already snapped, Sylhet got disconnected from the rest of the country by rail yesterday. The divisional district is now at risk of getting isolated by road within a day or two if the flood situation deteriorates further.

Bus operators -- both private and state-run -- are going to expand their services in the south-western region, following the inauguration of Padma Bridge on June 25.

Although the Roads and Highways Department continued to improve its roads across the country, around 2,100km -- 10.36 percent of all surveyed roads -- are still in “poor, bad or very bad” condition, says an RHD survey.

Bangladesh Railway (BR) will have to spend over Tk 2,000 crore to build a rail line from Darshana to Meherpur via Mujibnagar, the historic place where the first Bangladesh government took oath in 1971.

About 76 percent of the government officials involved with preparing, processing and evaluating development projects think the projects get approved without an adequate feasibility study and stakeholder consultations, found recent research.

Four scientific officers of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) met their untimely demise in Savar. The lives of three couples and three others were snatched away in Gopalganj, and five of a family perished in Rajbari.

After the Awami League government came to power in 2009, it took up several gigantic development projects with a view to transforming the country’s communication and transport infrastructure.

Following the instruction of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in October 2014, Bangladesh Railway carried out a feasibility study for constructing a high-speed rail network between Dhaka and Chattogram.

Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) has started a process to develop a centralised electronic toll collection system for all its structures -- bridges, elevated expressways and tunnels.

Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) is going to get 96 new staffers, but this is unlikely to solve its perennial workforce crisis, especially in regards to field-level work.