A highway to growth

The expanded four-lane highways connecting Dhaka with Chittagong and Mymensingh would make travel faster and easier, and advance trade, export and import,  contributing to the GDP. We congratulate the government for implementing the mega projects that will significantly benefit the business communities as well as ordinary people. 

About 95 percent of the exported and imported garment products are transported through the Dhaka-Chittagong highway.   Dubbed as the economic corridor of the country, the two lane highway, now expanded to four lanes, with a daily traffic of around 30,000, was notorious for traffic snarl ups, causing travel time between the capital and the commercial city to go as high as 15 hours during holidays, a trip that should not take more than 5 hours. Hopefully that's going to change now. 

Physical infrastructure such as these is a precondition for industrialisation and economic development. However, a number of measures will have to be taken to reap the benefits of the new freeways such as barring slow moving vehicles, checking reckless driving, installing proper signage along the road and constructing adequate number of overpasses, flyovers and bridges which will take time. Meanwhile, small, easy-to-enforce steps like banning illegal parking and bazaars on the roadside would make the new-built highways safer and more user-friendly.