Collect tolls from regional highways: PM Hasina

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has instructed the authorities concerned to gradually bring regional highways under a toll system.

This will be the first time that tolls will be levied on using regional highways.

Secretary of the Planning Division Satyajit Kumar said the prime minister at the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) meeting yesterday underscored the government's heavy investment on highways.

He quoted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as saying that collecting the money on regional highways in this way would foster a culture of paying tolls among the people.

Regional highways make up a 4897.71km network of roads in the country. Besides those, there are also national highways and zilla (district) highways.

Roads and Highways Department (RHD) officials told The Business Standard that currently, toll is being collected only from the Dhaka-Mawa Highway, which is a national highway.

At a briefing following the meeting, Planning Minister MA Mannan said the government had invested thousands of crores in the construction of regional highways.

"We will not mind paying a nominal amount to drive on these roads," he said.

Regional Highways connect different regions and new district headquarters not connected by national highways and district roads. They are named after national highways. Names and numbers of these highways are decided such as – "Cumilla-Lalmai, R-140", whereas "R" stands for "Regional". This number can only be changed by RHD headquarters.

National Highways connect the national capital with different divisional and old district headquarters, port cities and international highways. These roads have been categorised as national highways considering the national importance and geographical positions. Each national highway has been provided with a name and a number. For example, the Dhaka-Chattogram Highway has been numbered "N-1" whereas "N" stands for "National". This number too can only be changed by RHD headquarters.

Zilla or district roads are defined as roads connecting upazila headquarters and other important rural centres with the existing road network. The names and numbers of these roads are decided such as "Akhaura-Agartala, Z-1203" whereas "Z" stands for "Zilla".

The planning minister said there are numerous complaints about the maintenance of rural roads. The prime minister has asked the Local Government Engineering Department to look into the matter.

At yesterday's meeting, the prime minister also asked the authorities to include women's work at home in the GDP.

"If this was done, Bangladesh's GDP could have been $800-900 billion instead of $465 billion. Women's work is being counted in many countries."

The prime minister further instructed the authorities to strengthen sanitation systems in schools across the country, especially in rural areas.

The planning minister told reporters that the prime minister has again said that even an inch of land cannot be left unused. Besides, she reiterated her intention to construct flyovers instead of normal roads in the Haor areas. At the same time, she asked officials concerned to refrain from carrying out development work by acquiring agricultural land.

"The prime minister has also instructed the agriculture ministry to preserve our wild orchids, animals, and big trees. She also said more tissue culture should be done in the country," said MA Mannan.

"The prime minister has information that Singapore, Malaysia, and Maldives want to import fruits and vegetables from our country. She talked about taking initiatives in this regard," the planning minister said.

The prime minister also ordered relevant departments to complete the distribution of the second phase of food aid across the country very soon.

At the meeting the prime minister also expressed grief over the fire in Bangabazar.

Explaining why various development partners' estimates on the country's growth do not match with the government's estimate, State Minister for Planning Shamsul Alam said private research organisations like the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (Sanem) prepare reports to satisfy the organisations from whom they receive funding.

He said, "The government makes estimates based on information from a vast database, which do not match the estimates of the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank. But they are not our rivals."

Ecnec approves 11 projects

Eleven projects involving Tk4,253 crore were approved in the Ecnec meeting yesterday.

The projects were – construction of a cancer centre at Dhaka CMH, establishment of 10 government secondary schools in the vicinity of Dhaka city, construction of Swadhinata Stambha in Suhrawardy Udyan, nutrition development through year-round fruit production, flood reconstruction emergency assistance, village infrastructure development in Jamalpur district, WASH sector strengthening and sanitation development, climate resilient sustainable water supply, sanitation and hygiene project, dredging of inner bar of Mongla Port Channel, widening and development of Bhulta-Araihajar-Bancharampur-Navinagar-Shibpur-Radhika Regional Highway and Sarail-Nasirnagar-Lakhai Regional Highway, and secondary education sector investment programme.