KALADAN NEWS

Date: Saturday, July 24, 2004

Bridge to be Built on Karnaphuli Linking Road to Rangoon

Chittagong, July 24: A third bridge would be built on the Karnaphuli River in Chittagong and it will be connected with the proposed road to Rangoon, capital of Burma, Commerce Minister Altaf Hussain Chowdhury said on July 20, 2004 while addressing a view exchange meeting with leaders Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Bangladesh is sincere to set up the bridge to enhance legal trade and commerce and to reduce the present informal border trade with Burma, the Commerce Minister further said.

The Commerc Minister also added the government has taken steps to strengthen the law enforcing agencies including police and coast guard to check undesired informal trade.

An amount of Tk 900 crore has been allocated in the annual budget for upgrading the forces with necessary equipment and transport. The budget provides Tk 300 crore for modernizing the coast guards to safe guard the territorial water, reported in the Daily Star.

The roads and Highway department (RHD) of Bangladesh has almost finalized the decision to build a bridge over the Karnaphuli River on concrete pillars. It connects Bangladesh, Burma and Thailand is a must for overall development of the region.

The overwhelming importance of the bridge is due to economic benefits of the nations. It will increase Burma-Bangladesh border trade and also becomes one of the main factors of the economic development towards Bangladesh’s east policy.

The construction of the proposed bridge is scheduled to be completed after two years of its beginning. The consortium of the Netherlands and Sweden would be given for building the bridge at a cost of the Tk.439 crore.

At present, the loaded trucks with goods from Burma-Bangladesh border to have waited at the gate of the bridge for long time to cross the existing bridge, which hampered the economic targets.

During the last visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister to Rangoon, she discussed road link between Dhaka and Rangoon to increase volume of the trade. ##

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