Narinjara News

Dhaka, February 9

Friendship Road construction starts in March

The construction of a ‘Friendship Road’ between Burma and Bangladesh will start next month, said a report of the Communication Ministry of Bangladesh.

The road will directly connect Rangoon and Dhaka, and will be built  through Arakan State.

According to the report, the road will be 130 kilometers and be built from Ramu, in the Cox'sbazar district of Bangladesh, to Kyauk Taw in Burma’s Arakan State.

The total cost of the road’s construction is estimated to be 1363.4

million Taka, (US $23 million), of which 860 million Taka will be spent on Burma’s portion of the road and 470 million Taka on the Bangladeshi side.

The two countries recently signed an agreement about the direct road line in a meeting in Rangoon.

In the meeting, a 4-member team of Bangladeshi officials, led by  Mohammad Idris Mia, Additional Chief Engineer of Roads and Highways, and 6  members of the Burmese team, led by U Han zaw, Managing Director of Construction, were in attendance.

Bangladesh is likely to spend all of the budgeted costs of the

construction. The Communication Ministry recently finalized the project’s papers, which will be sent to the Financial Ministry requesting the necessary funds, said a report of the Communication Ministry.

Burma, however, will conduct the survey and design of the road on its own.

The ousted Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt laid a symbolic foundation stone for the road at Ramu (Panwa) during his visit to Bangladesh in April last year.#

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