The government will upgrade 373Km of the national highways to four lanes with a provision for separate service lanes for slow moving vehicles in FY 2017-18.

It will be upgraded as part of the ongoing upgradation work of 3,813Km national highways to 4 lanes across the country, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said in his budget speech.

“Besides, we plan to undertake cluster projects for construction of 1,855Km highways in the districts of Bandarban, Rangamati and Khagrachari,” the minister said.

He said the government has undertaken a zone-based cluster project to upgrade around 1,179km regional highways in order to build a quality communication infrastructure and develop road transport system.

“We have also planned to set up Axle Load Control Stations at various land and river ports, stone quarries and large toll plazas in order to control the movement of overloaded vehicles on the highways, the minister said.

Moreover, upgrading of Dhaka-Sylhet highway to 4 lanes will be undertaken very soon, he added.