The World Bank (WB) yesterday sanctioned $425 million to improve road connections in Bangladesh by building, maintaining and improving bridges in rural areas.This programme is going to benefit two-thirds of the country's population.

‘The Operation for Supporting Rural Bridges’ programme will maintain 85,000 metres of bridges, widen or rehabilitate 29,000 metres of bridges, and build another 20,000 metres of new bridges, said a WB press release.

The programme will also create jobs for local people by generating about 5.5 million person-days of employment, including long-term maintenance work. It will support the government’s existing programme for developing and maintaining rural bridges.

“By bridging the missing links in Bangladesh’s rural road network, the programme will enable rural communities living in remote areas to have better road connections,” said Qimiao Fan, WB country director for Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal.

“This will help millions of rural people access markets, hospitals and schools, as well as create new opportunities for livelihoods,” he added.

Bangladesh has a higher road density—the ratio of the total road length to the country's land area—than any other South Asian country including India and Sri Lanka. As Bangladesh’s flat terrain is crisscrossed by hundreds of rivers, bridges play a critical part in the country’s road system.

For every 4.5 km of roads in unions or upazilas, a bridge is needed to connect two disjointed road sections. While Bangladesh enjoys an extensive rural road network, one-fifth of the required rural bridges have not been built yet.

The WB programme will build, widen and maintain rural bridges in 61 districts. In 19 coastal districts, it will construct or rebuild bridges to include climate-resilient features.

“The programme will support government efforts to improve institutional capacity to plan, design, control quality and manage rural bridges. It'll also ensure that the bridges are climate-resilient in coastal areas,” said Farhad Ahmed, WB senior transport specialist and team leader for the programme.

“The programme will promote citizens’ participation to ensure construction quality and develop a mobile phone-based application for citizens to report quality issues,” he added.

The credit from the WB's International Development Association (IDA) has a 30-year term, including a five-year grace period.