Focus on the roads we have before building new ones, says Hasina

Sheikh Hasina has asked officials to prioritise the maintenance of the existing road infrastructure instead of chasing new projects.

The prime minister made the call at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council or ECNEC via videoconferencing held to discuss a road construction project on Tuesday.

After the meeting, Planning Minister MA Mannan said, “The prime minister said we’ve made many roads. Our chief goal now should be to maintain them. We’ve to provide safety in the roads we built, strengthen and widen them.”

“Rather than continue making new roads, keep those we have better and repair them - that’s what she spoke of today.”In the meeting, two new projects were approved. The construction of a road from Sherpur (Kanasakhola)-Bheemganj-Narayanganj-Paranganj-Mymensingh (Rahmatpur) was one of them. It will cost Tk 18.42 billion.

The other project focuses on improving Dinajpur’s Hilly-Dugdugy-Ghoraghat National Highway by renovating the dilapidated culverts and constructing a rigid pavement in the market area. The budget for this has been set at Tk 4.54 billion.

Mannan said the prime minister had brought up the immense potential in Bangladesh’s information and technology sector.

“She believes people need to be made more aware of IT training programmes. Young men and women are making a good living through this sector. The prime minister said the government is thinking of increasing investment in the sector.”