Tuhin Shubhra Adhikary

The government has decided to suspend all public transport services to slow the spread of novel coronavirus, inching closer to enforcing a lockdown.

The government is planning to turn a major section of the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway into an expressway to ensure better connectivity between the capital and Mymensingh division, where 10 economic zones will be established.

Confusion spread over the decision to put Sadullapur upazila of Gaibandha under lockdown yesterday, after a upazila committee to contain coronavirus, led by the UNO, made the recommendation to do so in a letter to the district administration.

A confusion has emerged over the decision to put Sadullapur upazila of Gaibandha under lockdown, after a upazila committee to contain coronavirus, led by a UNO, made the recommendation to do so in a letter to the district administration.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges took steps to collect toll from major highways for road maintenance, but an initiative to raise dedicated fund for the same purpose remained stalled for years.

Bidyanondo Foundation, a voluntary organisation working primarily for education of underprivileged children, today started spraying disinfectants in public transports as a preventive measure against possible spread of novel coronavirus.

About 30 per cent of the staff employed by tour operators in the country may lose jobs if the coronavirus pandemic does not subside anytime soon, according to various tour operations.

As the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise globally, so too does its impact on the country’s tourism sector.

Bus operators are bracing for bumpy roads ahead in the wake of India’s ban on entry of foreign nationals until April 15 and people avoiding travel within the country over apprehensions centring the coronavirus outbreak.

Bangladeshi airlines and bus operators yesterday suspended regular passenger-carrying trips to India following India’s sweeping travel restriction on foreigners to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

The outbreak of coronavirus in China has begun affecting two mega projects in Bangladesh -- the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project and the Padma Bridge Rail Link Project – “to some extent”, project officials said.

The cost of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Railway Bridge Construction Project has gone up to Tk 16,781 crore from Tk 9,734 crore.

Construction site of the much anticipated Padma bridge is humming with activity in the final phase of the project, but worries surround the involvement of the Chinese company building the bridge, whose headquarters is situated in Wuhan, the epicentre of the global coronavirus outbreak.

Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has significantly reduced its mobile court drives against unfit and illegal vehicles as well as errant drivers since November last year, leaving the road transport sector in chaos.

Private transport owners are obstructing the BRTC initiative to launch new buses, mostly double-deckers, on different routes in the country as they fear this will slash their income.

Between 1990 and 2017, the increase in the road crash fatality rate per capita was three times higher in Bangladesh than that across South Asia, according to a World Bank report.

Ever since Bangladesh achieved independence, Japan has been standing by the country through thick and thin like a trusted friend.

It took the government almost nine years to draw up a project for relocating chemical factories and warehouses from Old Dhaka’s Nimtoli where an inferno claimed 124 lives in 2010.

Carrying a small bag, Ahsan Ullah Tutul yesterday attended a press conference organised to seek justice for his son and numerous others killed in road accidents.

It’s a classic case of how poor planning can increase the cost of a project and delay its implementation. The upgrade of the 70km road from Joydevpur to Elenga in Tangail to a four-lane highway was due to be completed by March 2018 at a cost of Tk 2,788.45 crore.