The New Nation - Internet Edition

It is good news that the Government of Bangladesh has decided to join the Asian highway but the parliamentary committee's recommendations for accepting proposed routes of AH1 (Benapole-Jessore-Bhanga-Dhaka-Kanchpur-Sylhet-Tamabil) or AH2 (Banglabanda-Hatikumrul-Tangail-Dhaka-Kanchpur-Sylhet-Tamabil) do not seem to reflect due considerations given to our national interest.

Though UNESCAP proposed these two routes as international, a closer look will reveal the regional nature of both these routes. The fact that both the routes start from and end in India after passing through Bangladesh which is an added disadvantage for us. The proposed route AH141 (Mongla-Khulna-Jessore-Pakshi-hatikumrul-Dhaka-Kanchpur-Comilla-Chittagong-Cox's Bazar-Teknaf-Yangoon), which is dubbed as a regional route, merits more consideration to be treated as international route than either AH1 or AH2. Bangladesh should start negotiation with UNESCAP and India and Myanmar to treat AH141as international route with the following modifications:

Benapole-Jessore-Dhaka- Kanchpur-Comilla-Chittagong-Cox's Bazar-Teknaf-Yangoon

In my opinion, Bangladesh should choose to join this modified international route of the Asian highway.

Nuruddin Azam

Australia