Govt prepares Tk12cr China-funded trunk highway masterplan

To meet growing transport demand and support Bangladesh’s future economic and social development, the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) is preparing a new masterplan for the country’s trunk highway network with a grant from China.

The plan will place particular emphasis on developing an expressway network and identifying major river-crossing bridges needed to strengthen connectivity.

To this end, the RHD is undertaking a technical assistance project titled “Preparation of Bangladesh Trunk Highway Network Plan Focusing on the Expressway Network and Major River Crossing Bridges” at a cost of Tk12.35 crore. 

The entire cost will be financed through a grant from the Chinese government.

The masterplan is expected to be completed by October next year. The project proposal has recently been sent to the Planning Commission for approval.

According to RHD officials, a key component of the project will be designing a national expressway network connecting major economic centres, cities, industrial zones and ports. 

The plan will also identify and prioritise major river-crossing bridges required to ensure national and regional connectivity.

It will also establish priorities and a phased implementation strategy for road and bridge development projects. This will determine which projects should be implemented in the short, medium and long term, with the aim of making investments more effective.

Officials and experts believe the plan could help reduce logistics costs, boost trade and investment, and strengthen regional connectivity. It is also expected to contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and supporting Bangladesh’s LDC graduation.

From broad road plan to strategic trunk network

RHD officials said the department previously implemented a similar project. The experience and outcomes of that project will inform the preparation of the new plan.

However, officials said the previous road masterplan and the proposed trunk highway network plan differ significantly in their objectives, structure and implementation strategy.

The previous masterplan, with financial support from the ADB, was a broad strategic document aimed at the overall development of the national road network, with a focus on improving and expanding the capacity of roads across different classifications.

The new plan, by contrast, will focus more specifically on connecting the country’s major economic corridors, including ports, industrial zones and regional growth centres.

Another key feature of the new plan is its focus on expressways and high-speed roads as a central development priority. While the issue received limited attention in the previous masterplan, the new proposal focuses on establishing a controlled-access expressway network to facilitate faster and more seamless movement.

Major river-crossing bridges will also be treated as an integrated part of the network. While bridges in the previous masterplan were generally considered on a project-by-project basis.

Addressing connectivity gaps

According to the project proposal, the lack of an integrated transport database and planning has led to fragmented highway development, while inconsistent technical standards and weak long-term planning contributed to uneven infrastructure quality.

With economic growth, urbanisation and traffic volumes increasing, the RHD is implementing several road expansion and upgrading projects. But the country still lacks what the proposal describes as a unified, data-driven strategy for its trunk road network.

The proposed plan is intended to address that gap by developing a national-level framework centred on expressways, major bridges and strategic economic corridors.

The Chinese technical assistance will provide international expertise for developing the strategic plan. The proposal says the initiative follows exchanges between Bangladesh and China under agreements signed in November 2019 and June 2021. China’s support for the highway network planning was formally reaffirmed on 26 June 2025.