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8 expressways in Bangladesh by 2041 – to boost regional connectivity

It's Tk4,70,400 core.



Can you show me your calculation? For me, it shows the conversions from Tk4,70,400 crore works out to a little under $55 billion let alone just Tk 70,400 crore. How do you get over $800 billion?

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Sorry, I made a great mistake. The amount is $55.34 billion. I am extremely sorry.
 
Sorry, I made a great mistake. The amount is $55.34 billion. I am extremely sorry.

No problem @bluesky bhai, things happen. All good.

But did you see that project costs are three to five times the cost of Pakistan per KM? :-)

Bangladesh cost is $23 Million per KM.

Just tells you how Bangladesh is being washed away by the level of "development" happening.

Such massive amount of theft is unprecedented globally.

Exceeds that of Equatorial Guinea. And that is a bona-fide Banana Republic.

 
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Sorry, I made a great mistake. The amount is $55.34 billion. I am extremely sorry.
No worries. Easy to make mistakes. Actually took me quite a while to do it properly as I'm not good with calculating crores and it has so many zeroes.

That comes down to a shade over $23 Million per KM in Bangladesh while it is $4 to $7 Million per KM in Pakistan (probably way lower in India but their standards are sub par as we all know).We should also look at Chinese construction costs per KM.
PK's are 6 lanes too. Even after considering our geography and density making ours far more costlier, this is obscene level of cost. Hard to imagine this level of corruption. I would like for the journalists to mention what the cost of the past project and the estimated proposed project are, both with and without land acquisition related costs. I think it would give better perspective when comparing per km costs with countries like Pakistan where highways between states doesn't have comparable land acquisition costs. I think I remember seeing one project where half the budget was just spent on land acquisition.

No doubt the corruption in BD is uncontested and much more than the likes of Pakistan, but this level just seems too much.
 
No worries. Easy to make mistakes. Actually took me quite a while to do it properly as I'm not good with calculating crores and it has so many zeroes.


PK's are 6 lanes too. Even after considering our geography and density making ours far more costlier, this is obscene level of cost. Hard to imagine this level of corruption. I would like for the journalists to mention what the cost of the past project and the estimated proposed project are, both with and without land acquisition related costs. I think it would give better perspective when comparing per km costs with countries like Pakistan where highways between states doesn't have comparable land acquisition costs. I think I remember seeing one project where half the budget was just spent on land acquisition.

No doubt the corruption in BD is uncontested and much more than the likes of Pakistan, but this level just seems too much.

8 lanes for BD will further the infras. I am actully amazed at how much the BD infras has come along
 
No problem @bluesky bhai, things happen. All good.

But did you see that project costs are three to five times the cost of Pakistan per KM? :-)

Bangladesh cost is $23 Million per KM.


Just tells you how Bangladesh is being washed away by the level of "development" happening.

Such massive amount of theft is unprecedented globally.

Exceeds that of Equatorial Guinea. And that is a bona-fide Banana Republic.

There are always Churidari in BD govt projects. It is an ongoing process.

However, we better do not compare our country's terrain with that of Pakistan. Even Punjab soil is much stronger with no swampland, Beel, Haor, or low land. It means that the quantity of earthworks is far too smaller than it is in BD.

Normally, people think it is concrete, RCC or steel bars that are expensive. But earthwork is also expensive, quite expensive. However, it is quite difficult to make people realize this fact.

In the case of a Pakistani highway, it may be built just 1m higher than the adjoining land, BD highway must be higher by 5m- to 8m. It is all because of floods. The road surface must be at least 1 m above the Flood Line.

Currently, I think soil must be hauled by heavy trucks from the riverbed. I think this soil should be stabilized by mixing cement with it and each compacted for every 30 cm of depth.

Then think of constructing bridges and culverts which may not be needed in Pakistan for many kilometers. BD needs these structures every km. And they have to be built on piles.

Then comes the factor of the rainy season when money goes out but little work progress is achieved. It means the cost overhead is higher in BD.

Note also that to build a stabilized road, it is also necessary to spread at least two layers of Geotextile Clothes beneath the road surface. This prevents rainwater from being seepaged down and up through these sheets.

A proper drainage system is also needed whereby road surface water goes down the road slope ditches.

Pakistan may not need many of these things. So, the cost of construction remains lower in Pakistan than it is in BD.
 
I think this plan in Bangladesh belongs to the Pie-in-the-sky variety. I posted it just to illustrate how outlandish the plans these days are - in terms of chori.

Hasina's govt. is trying to float this plan on Indian cue - as usual Hasina is biding her work-master Modi's plans to interconnect West Bengal and Bihar with all NE states through Bangladesh to provide Indian shippers free transit to NE. Transit through Bangladesh to their NE states is Indian dream which they are "twisting our arms on" all the time and they will never pay one red cent for it as demonstrated by past history.

Indians want to improve infra in NE for strategic reasons but can't because they are too cheap to build their own roads via chicken's neck to the NE. Indians want us to do their bidding on our dime.

There is also a legitimate reason why building roads in Bangladesh costs more money,

a. Higher cost of appropriating arable land (even by state's sovereign rights) - much higher than Pakistan or India.
b. Earthfill (most land in Bangladesh is of the low-lying variety which floods annually).
c. Bridges and culverts (Bangladesh is criss-crossed by over 700 rivers and their tributaries).

But - the massive corruption and chori cannot be discounted, which is at a much higher scale than Pakistan.

Thanks to @bête noire - we have $55 Billion as total cost for 2352 km 4 lane roads (named expressways by Hasina). Yes these will not be open to roadside like normal roads and will have controlled off ramps, exits and on-ramps. That comes down to a shade over $23 Million per KM in Bangladesh while it is $4 to $7 Million per KM in Pakistan (probably way lower in India but their standards are sub par as we all know).We should also look at Chinese construction costs per KM.

This means project costs in Bangladesh are three to five times that of Pakistan, even counting similar construction costs. Tells everyone how much Chori (theft) is going on in Bangladesh. Some of these ministers in Bangladesh deserve Allah ka ghazab, immediately, if not sooner.

Corruption also exist in Pakistan. Actually this government successfully reduced per km road cost by 16% as compare to previous government projects (despite a decent increase in prices of materials ).


 
Corruption also exist in Pakistan. Actually this government successfully reduced per km road cost by 16% as compare to previous government projects (despite a decent increase in prices of materials ).



I must say - there seems to be more accountability in Pakistan in most administrative spheres, compared to Bangladesh.

Govt. People in Pakistan cannot get away with anything like corrupt party people do in Bangladesh.

Press seems more free in Pakistan as well. No one in Bangladesh press can say anything against Hasina and her projects and get away with it.

And Pakistan probably does not have party cadres lifting tender documents to corner govt. contracts.
 
I must say - there seems to be more accountability in Pakistan in most administrative spheres, compared to Bangladesh.

Govt. People in Pakistan cannot get away with anything like corrupt party people do in Bangladesh.

Press seems more free in Pakistan as well. No one in Bangladesh press can say anything against Hasina and her projects and get away with it.

And Pakistan probably does not have party cadres lifting tender documents to corner govt. contracts.

It's not heaven and ruling class not angels but yah. It's acceptable.
 
I would say connect the major divisional capital via the expressways.
They should let the local construction companies to do majority of the work even if some of these guys have questionable experiences and reputations.

There's no other way to get your local companies going. It's a shame that the United States and Germany built expressways 60/70 years ago, we can't do the same these days.
Please see the connectivity map. By seeing it I can say the purpose is not to make regional connectivities, but the purpose is to connect Indian NE with West Bengal/ Kolkata. All start somewhere in the Indian border and end similarly. Even there is no connection with Myanmar.

However, you are proposing connection networks among the divisional towns.
The GoB just do not want it. It is happy to make India happy. That's all.

Can someone tell me who are these Experts. We are here are all experts.

"Experts say the proposed expressways will be the backbone of the country’s economy in the future".

Mega Paln For Expressway
 
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