Bitumen crisis slows down Tangail-Rangpur highway construction

• 63% work of the highway has been completed and the rest mostly depends on availability of bitumen
• The authorities have only been able to secure 3,500 tonnes of bitumen against required 58,000 tonnes
• Contractors fail to import bitumen on time due mainly to the ongoing dollar crisis
• Problems in land acquisition are also blamed for the slow progress of the project funded by the Asian Development Bank

The construction of the 190km four-lane highway from Tangail to Rangpur – a part of the proposed South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation Road Connectivity – is facing a delay due mainly to a shortage of bitumen, a crucial raw material, causing uncertainty over its completion by the deadline, December 2024.

Despite seven years of construction commencement, the authorities have only been able to secure 3,500 tonnes of bitumen, which is just 6% of the 58,000 tonnes required to complete the project funded by the Asian Development Bank.

A large portion of bitumen for the megaproject is supposed to come from India and a little portion from the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation. The corporation has already supplied its portion, 3,500 tonnes, but the contractors have failed to import the remaining amount of bitumen amid the ongoing dollar crisis.

Project officials said some 63% of the construction work of the highway has been completed and the rest mostly depends on the availability of bitumen.

"The crisis we are now facing with the megaproject is global. As no one in the country now has good quality bitumen, the construction work has come to a standstill," said Waliur Rahman, director of the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation Road Connectivity project, under which the 190km highway is being constructed.

"If the bitumen is not available soon, the contractors will not be able to complete the construction on time."

"We, however, are trying our best to make people of this region enjoy the benefits of the highway before the next national election. Hopefully, we can overcome the challenges," he, also an additional chief engineer of the Roads and Highways Department, told The Business Standard.

Hamidul Haque, additional director of the project, added that there is no alternative to quality bitumen to build good quality roads.

"The use of poor quality bitumen can even hamper the image of the government," he told TBS and added that they are waiting for imported bitumen.

The 190km road is one of the eight new highways of Bangladesh, totalled 600km in length, which will be added to the proposed South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation Road Connectivity, project Spokesperson and Executive Engineer Joy Prakash Chowdhury noted.

The highway in Northern Bangladesh is expected to help grow industries in the region as well as increase direct trade with India and Nepal.

Divided into nine sections, the construction of the road started in 2016 with an estimated cost of Tk11,899 crore. Later the cost was revised up to Tk16,662 crores.

Two flyovers, 26 bridges, a railway and 11 steel-foot overbridges will also be built under the project.

Apart from the bitumen crisis, problems in land acquisition, particularly in Gaibandha, is also blamed for the slow progress of the project.