Tuhin Shubhra Adhikary

Around half of the ongoing projects of Bangladesh Railway will have to be revised after the end of the current fiscal year, thanks to poor implementation.

The government is going to extend the current restrictions on travelling and outdoor activities for another week and the authorities will be even stricter in enforcing the restrictions, sources in the cabinet division said.

Giving in to the pressure from transport associations, the government is going to bring about a drastic change in the Road Transport Act-2018, reducing fines stipulated under 11 sections and sentences under four sections.

All public, private and autonomous offices will remain closed for a week from April 14, says a Cabinet Division proposal aimed at curbing the sharp rise in Covid-19 cases and deaths.

Works of the fast-track projects will continue amid the strict lockdown to be imposed from Wednesday to contain the sharp rise of Covid-19 cases and deaths.

With no directive about the two days between the “lockdowns”, many said they were confused as to what would happen on April 12 and 13.

The ongoing restrictions to curb the Covid-19 surge across the country are showing signs of failure everywhere.

The government yesterday decided to resume public transport services in all 11 cities in the country from today, barely a couple of days after it imposed the weeklong restrictions to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Residents in the capital yesterday worked themselves into a frenzy to stock up on food supplies and household essentials ahead of the weeklong restrictions on transport and public movement from today.

Thousands of people in different parts of the capital suffered badly after being hit by a severe gas crisis as a Titas connection was damaged in Amin Bazar on the outskirts of the city on Monday night.

The alignment of the proposed high-speed train between Dhaka and Chittagong is likely to be changed.

A bottleneck on the rail route between Dhaka and the country’s north-western and southern regions is unlikely to go away anytime soon as one of the two projects aimed at improving the track capacity are stuck in limbo due to delayed loan negotiations and a cost-cutting directive.

Two Chinese companies have expressed interest in forming a joint venture to construct, operate and manage funds for a proposed high-speed railway on the Dhaka-Chattogram route.

The two-lane Dhaka-Tangail-Rangpur highway that is being turned into a four-lane one has been selected for charging toll from those plying it.

South Korean Hyundai Rotem Company has supplied 10 locomotives to Bangladesh Railway deviating from some clauses of the contract, a probe committee has found.

The bottleneck in distribution of smart driving licences is likely to ease as a new vendor of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority starts the distribution process today.

Two new project proposals, including one on the operation and maintenance of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA), will be placed at a high-level meeting between representatives of Bangladesh and Japan today and there will be discussion whether those can be implemented under public private partnership (PPP).

In a rare move, the railways ministry yesterday changed the directors of 17 projects of Bangladesh Railway, aiming to facilitate their quick implementation.

Leaders of road transport associations yesterday demanded the government increase bus fares and give them financial benefits as their businesses were “hit hard by the pandemic”.

Ignoring its own probe committee’s recommendation to take punitive measures against 21 officials for purchase anomalies, the railways ministry has promoted one of them and started the process for another.