Big boost for road, railway

Allocation for communications infrastructure saw a big boost in the proposed budget, though quality compliance will remain a concern for the sector, the development of which is a pre-requisite to escalating the country's economic growth.

The allocation for communication infrastructure development saw a jump of 42.55 percent this year from the revised budget of the outgoing fiscal year.

The government has earmarked over Tk 47,500 crore this year, which was over Tk 33,300 last year.

In addition, the road transport and highways division, railways ministry and bridges division saw a hike of around 63 percent, 34 percent and 29 percent in allocation compared to the current fiscal year.

Allocation in the road transport and highways division was Tk 12,077 crore last year, which has been proposed at Tk 19,700 crore this year -- a hike of over Tk 7,600 crore.

An allocation of Tk 16,000 crore has been proposed for railways, which was about Tk 12,000 crore last year.

In the bridges division, an additional Tk 1,900 crore has been proposed in the budget. Last year, the allocation for bridge development was about Tk 6,500 crore, which is over Tk 8,400 crore this year.

The road transport and railways ministries have been implementing different mega and fast track projects. Some of these include the Padma Bridge, Metro Rail, Dhaka Elevated Expressway, Bus Rapid Transit, expansion of two-lane highways into four lanes, Padma Rail Link, Dohazari (Chittagong)-Gundum (Cox's Bazar] rail track,  involving several billion dollars.

Experts said the higher allocations were expected as projects taken in the past years are gaining momentum now.

They, however, expressed concern over the quality of implementation of the communication infrastructure projects.

They suggested adopting more public private partnership (PPP) models in these sectors to ensure quality implementation of the projects and optimal benefits for the users.

Infrastructure expert Dr Shamsul Hoque, a professor of civil engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, said quality compliance is a crucial issue in implementing the projects.

The concern for quality would remain as long as the PPP model is not encouraged, he said. Implementation of government funded projects face quality issues and witness delays too, he added.

The Buet professor said if there is quality implementation of the projects, then the country would get better infrastructure, which would lead to a developed economy.