Home ›› 17 Jan 2022 ›› Editorial
Improvement of rural road infrastructure is of utmost importance for rural and national economies as most of Bangladesh’s population still lives in the vast rural areas. As the efficient rural transportation system has direct consequences over the faster delivery of agricultural produces, all-season roads are the fundamental need across the country. The government has its target in the Eighth Five Year Plan to raise the Rural Access Index (RAI) performance to 90 per cent from the existing 84 per cent by 2025. The five-year master plan says 33,000 km more roads will have to be constructed in rural areas to attain the performance target. Originally developed by the World Bank in 2006, the RAI is among the most important global development indicators in the transport sector, providing a strong, clearly understandable, and conceptually consistent indicator across countries.
A news report published in this daily on Sunday states that the government will improve village roads and necessary infrastructures in greater Pabna and Bogura districts to facilitate the transportation of agricultural products. The Local Government and Rural Development and Cooperatives Ministry has undertaken a project titled “Improvement of Rural Infrastructure in Greater Pabna and Bogura Districts” and sent it to the Planning Commission for approval of the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC). Once implemented, the project will help villagers commute easily across the areas to marketplaces, healthcare centres, educational institutions, and other service centres, the report says quoting planning ministry officials. The project’s cost is estimated at Tk 1,400 crore to be implemented from January 2022 to June 2025. The two districts have 16,106-kilometre roads, of which 9,023km are paved roads and 7,083km of dirt roads. Of the total, 857km village dirt road or 8.56 per cent will be upgraded to paved roads under the two districts to ease communication that will help smooth transportation of agricultural goods. The project’s main component is to renovate 211km roads in union parishads and 94km roads in upazilas along with 552 village roads.
Bangladesh has 2.75 lakh kilometres of village roads, 2.10 lakh kilometres of earthen roads, 36,876 kilometres of upazila roads, and 41,781 kilometres of union roads. The rural roads need to be developed as all-season roads because the rainy season typically damages the village roads badly, causing immense suffering to rural people and bringing unease for the overall economy. A holistic programme is essential to facelift all rural roads. Inadequate rural transport and poor market infrastructure remain a challenge to Bangladesh’s rural development. The situation is further worsened by recurrent flooding and disasters that paralyse agricultural value chains. Less than half of the rural population has access to all-weather roads, which make up less than a third of the total length of rural roads in the country, as per a recent study report of the Asian Development Bank.
As per the project proposal, the villages of Pabna, Bogura, Sirajganj, and Joypurhat are taking the shape of the town. Huge agricultural and non-agricultural products are being produced in these areas centring Rajshahi town. Once the rural infrastructure in these areas gets improved, economic development will play a vital role in boosting the country’s GDP, adds the published report.
The landscape of rural Bangladesh has been changing for the last decade. Rural economic activities are changing and occupations are shifting from farm to non-farm sectors. This has been driven by the income opportunities of a large segment of rural populations beyond agriculture, as remittance has been instrumental over the gradual shift in professions and lifestyles. Over time, significant structural changes have taken place in the Bangladesh economy. During the last five decades, the agriculture sector has been surpassed by the industry and services sectors in terms of its contributions to the economy. Many developed countries have experienced similar structural transformations in their economies. Still, rural areas of Bangladesh provide huge food stock to feed the 18 crore people. Development and improvement of the entire rural road infrastructure are synonymous with the overall development of Bangladesh.
