Physical work of Dhaka-Sylhet 6-lane project begins next month

The physical work of converting the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway, the country's second most important highway, into six-lanes begins next month.

Speaking to The Business Standard, AK Mohammad Fazlul Karim, project director, SASEC Dhaka-Sylhet Corridor Road Investment Project, said, "The existing two-lane highway is not fulfilling the growing demand for traffic on the highway. Another reason is this highway is one of the most accident-prone highways in the country."

He said from an international perspective, the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway was a part of the Asian Highway (AH1), South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) and South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) corridors and also part of the Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal (BBIN) initiative.

From a national perspective, Sylhet is a potential area for Bangladesh in terms of tourism and natural resources with some economic zones being set up in the Sylhet area.

He said that upon completion of the project, the travel time, as well as road safety, will be ensured.  

The Highways Department entered into a contract on 24 October with a joint venture consisting of Zhengzhou City Highway Engineering Corporation of China and Bangladeshi Max Infrastructure.

The joint venture was awarded the work worth Tk925.36 crore.

The joint venture will work on an 18-kilometre road widening project between Kanchpur intersection to Chanpara on the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway.

The same joint venture was also awarded the Tk1,394.66 crore project for the 17-kilometre road widening work from Chanpara to Narsingdi BSCIC.

According to the contracts, the joint ventures will complete the physical within four years. Funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the over 200km Dhaka-Sylhet Highway will connect Meghalaya with West Bengal of India via Tamabil-Sylhet-Dhaka-Narail-Jashore.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved the project in February last year and set December 2026 as the deadline.

The government decided to implement the project under six packages and appoint 13 contractors for quick implementation of the project.

According to the Bangladesh Roads and Highways officials, the contractors would be responsible for constructing flexible pavements, culverts, bridges, flyovers, overpasses and underpasses under the contracts.

The Dhaka-Sylhet Highway connects the Sylhet division with the Dhaka and Chattogram.

The existing two-lane highway from Narayanganj's Kanchpur to Sylhet is now insufficient to deal with the growing number of vehicles, often causing traffic congestion and road crashes.