Staff Correspondent

Allocation for the transportation sector comprising road, rail, sea and airways has dropped by Tk4,711 crore in the budget proposed for FY25 compared to the last fiscal, according to the finance minister’s budget speech in parliament on Thursday.

An allocation of TK82,918 crore has been proposed for the communication and transportation sector in the proposed FY25 budget, while TK87,621 crore was allocated to this sector in FY24.

Allocation for the transportation sector accounts for 10.4% of the total budget proposed for the next fiscal.

In the budget speech, Finance Minister Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali said, “There is a plan to construct 12 expressways and 10 more elevated expressways by 2041. The government is continuously working to build a modern and sustainable highway network by adopting an integrated action plan in line with the goal of making Bangladesh a developed nation as per Plan-2041.

“At the same time, making plans and implementing them to modernise the motor vehicle management system and work to introduce high-speed public transport systems (MRT and BRT) to improve road safety and traffic congestion in Dhaka metropolis are ongoing.”

Meanwhile, various government programmes are going on to construct infrastructure centring railways, but there was no detailed discussion in the budget speech regarding that. Instead, there were hints about increasing the number of cargo and passenger carriages of the existing trains.

Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali said, 20 new metre gauge diesel-electric locomotives and 150 metre gauge passenger carriages will be added to the existing ones in the next fiscal year. Besides, 100 repaired metre gauge passenger carriages will be added to the rail transport system to increase passenger service quality, freight capacity, operational efficiency and revenue of railways.

Apart from this, initiatives have been taken to implement several projects as per the Bangladesh Railway Master Plan, 8th Five Year Plan and 2nd Perspective Plan/Sustainable Development Objective and Election Manifesto-2024, said the minister.

As many as 26 river ports have been introduced to the inland waterways in the last 15 years to reduce pressure on roads and railways and ensure safe and smooth transportation of passengers and goods by sea. At present, construction of 52 km more walkway on reclaimed lands surrounding the circular waterway system is in progress, he added.