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Highway With Myanmar

Dhaka-financed works to start by next June

Shamim Ashraf
The construction work of a 25-kilometre direct road between Bangladesh and Myanmar is likely to begin by the middle of next year.
The communications ministry has already started the process of selecting a consulting firm for conducting the feasibility study and making the cost estimation of the highway, which would boost trade and interaction between the peoples of the two neighbouring countries.
"We hope to start the construction works in nine months to one year,” Communications Secretary Dr Mahbubur Rahman told The Daily Star yesterday, adding that Myanmar is enthusiastic about it as well.
Apart from facilitating trade between the two countries, the road link will also open up the possibility of a greater road network between Bangladesh and China and the South-East Asian countries including Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore.
The efforts for establishing a direct road link began in 1994 and finally, a deal was signed between the two countries on July 27 last year for construction of the 25-km road in the first phase.
At that time the cost was estimated by the communications ministry atTk 195.85 crore.
Designed to start at Balukhali in Cox's Bazar, the 2-km Bangladesh part will stretch to Gundum and then it will run 23 kilometres from Tambru up to Bawlibazar in the
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Rakhain State of Myanmar.
Apart from bearing the cost of the 2-km road inside the country, Bangladesh will finance construction of the 23-km road in Myanmar.
On March 10, finance and Planning Adviser ABM Azizul Islam approved Tk 4.97 crore for a feasibility study to be implemented between April 1 and September 30 this year, sources in the communications ministry said.
Eight firms have responded after the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) invited expressions of interest for the consulting job.
By June 5, five to seven firms will be retained for pre-qualification selection. They will be issued request for proposal (RFP) by June 20 and will be asked to submit the
proposals in 45 days.
“After a combined evaluation of the technical and financial bids, the ministry will select one firm and sign contract with it by September," Tajul Islam Chowdhury, a joint secretary of communications ministry, told The Daily Star on Friday.
The feasibility study and cost estimation are expected to be finished by March next year.
Asked about the probable cost of the project, Tajul Islam said, “We have to wait to know this till the selected firm submits the estimation."
On an average, construction of a kilometre road costs Tk 8-10 crore, he added.
The Planning Commission has asked the communications ministry’ to send it the design and details
of the project before inviting international tenders for the construction, sources said.
After conceiving of the project in April 1994, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on April 4, 2004 and each formed two separate taskforces for technical and financial matters.
According to the alignment decided by one of the technical taskforces, a total of 130-km road needs to be constructed to connect with Myanmar national highway. Starting from Gundum in Cox's Bazar, the ^highway will link the Myanmar national highway at ChatwaviaTambru-Bawlibazar.
Though Bangladesh kept on pushing Myanmar to sign a deal for beginning the construction of the road, the latter took a long time in this regard.