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Collect tolls for using nat'l highways

PM instructs authorities

Staff Correspondent
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has instructed the authorities concerned to collect toll from long-haul vehicles plying the national highways, Planning Minister MA Mannan said yesterday.
Quoting the PM, he said the money would be deposited into a bank account and spent for the maintenance and repair of the roads.
Mannan made the comments while briefing reporters after a meeting of the
Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) in the capital.
The PM gave the directive while presiding over the meeting.
The minister said the PM talked about imposing tolls on vehicles using bridges and national highways, including Dhaka-Chattogram, Dhaka-Sylhet, Dhaka-Rangpur and Dhaka-Khulna.
"The toll will be imposed on long-haul vehicles, noton those running short distances," he said, adding the ministiy concerned would prepare a detailed guideline on it.
The minister said such tolls are collected in many countries across the world.
Contacted, Road Transport and Highways Division Joint Secretary (Toll and Axle) Mohammed Shafiqul Karim told The Daily Star, "We’ve heard about the prime minister's directive. We will take necessary steps after receiving the order."
Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury, secretary general of Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity, a passenger welfare platform, expressed concern over the move, saying the burden of paying the tolls would eventually fall on the passengers.
"If you want to impose toll on (vehicles plying] highways, you first need to ensure smooth roads which are free from traffic congestion and risks of accidents," he said.
Otherwise, people will not accept the decision, he said.
Bangladesh Bus-Truck Owners Association Chairman Romesh Chandra Ghosh echoed Mozammel's views.
He stressed the need for ensuring smooth highways and widening roads, culverts and bridges before the implementation of the decision.
He added buses plying Hatikumrul-Bonpara highway already pay such tolls.
There are 22,096kms of national and regional highways and district roads under the Roads and Highways Department. Of them, 3,906kms are national highways.
The PM's directive came after the Ecnec passed a Tk 793 crore project
for the maintenance of the four-lane Dhaka-Chattogram highway.
The project was passed within two years after the highway was expanded to four lanes from two for a cost ofTk 3,439 crore.
But the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division of the planning commission in a report in October last year said overloaded lorries and a high number of vehicles plying the highway have created ruts on its expanded parts.
Mannan said the prime minister instructed the authorities concerned to ensure that no buses could carry passengers beyond its capacity and overloaded trucks were stopped from using the highways.
The PM also asked the authorities concerned to set up a virtual courtroom at each jail and public universities in districts with no such institutions, he said.
"The virtual courtrooms will allow judges to conduct court proceedings through videoconference keeping criminals in jail," he said.
The Ecnec meeting yesterday approved 10 projects involving an estimated Tk 6,326 crore. A total of Tk 1,630 crore would be spent for building 21 weighbridges on important highways between July 2019 and June 2022 to check overloading.
The meeting also approved a Tk 174 crore project to set up centres to test the purity of supply water all over the country. The project would be implemented over the same period.