Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), Road Transport and Highways Division (RTHD) and Roads and Highways Department (RHD) on Tuesday shared knowledge on strengthening road maintenance and management system in Bangladesh.

Kim Taehyun, Deputy Country Director, KOICA Bangladesh Office, A.K.M. Manir Hossain Pathan, Additional Chief Engineer, Roads and Highways Department and Farjana Jesmin, Deputy Secretary, Road Transport and Highways Division, among other officials of the government of Bangladesh joined the discussion virtually. 

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At present, Bangladesh is undertaking various major projects to develop its infrastructure, namely, SASEC Road Connectivity Project, SASEC Dhaka-Sylhet Corridor Improvement Project, Sylhet-Tamabil Project, Padma Bridge Project, MRT Project, BRT Project, Cross-Border Infrastructure Project, Western Bangladesh Bridge Improvement Project, etc. 

However, KOICA said, challenges such as, establishing road connectivity with major development points, lack of data on structural bridge health monitoring, integrated traffic management, protecting network from natural disasters and the like still exist that calls for attention. 

To that end, KOICA has supported a nine-day long online fellowship programme titled ‘Strengthening and Building the Capacity of Roads & Highways Department Focusing on Road Maintenance and Management System Issues’.

It is the third year of KOICA’s country-focused fellowship programme targeting total 22 officials of RTHD and RHD conducted by Korea Expressway Corporation in Korea. 

The main goal was to develop and build capacity for road operation and traffic management based on the expressway management system of Korea Express Corporation. 

It also focused on fostering road management by sharing knowledge and advanced technologies of Korea. 

A detailed presentation on lessons learnt from the training programme was highlighted by officials of RTHD and RHD along with how concepts are formulated for composing a feasible action plan that can be implemented to strengthen national strategy for development of roads maintenance of Bangladesh. 

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Speaking on the occasion, Additional Chief Engineer, Roads and Highways Department appreciated KOICA’s support for holding an online training along with the dissemination of knowledge of first-hand Korean know-how techniques to a larger key audience involved on the ground. 

KOICA hoped that the training provided will contribute to the progress of Bangladesh in the road and transport sector through human resource development.