Online Desk: The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has proposed to send engineers abroad for training in road-widening method under a 35-kilometre road project at a district town, insiders said on Saturday.

It will also hire consultants for supervising the project work at Tk 5.0 million, which will come from public-taxed money, and spend Tk 5.74 million on tree plantation, they added.

For overseas training, the RHD has kept aside Tk 5.0 million even during this foreign-exchange reserve crisis in Bangladesh, sources relevant to this project told the FE.

In addition to their monthly salaries, the RHD wants to provide Tk 0.5-million honorarium to civil servants who will sit for tender evaluation, monitoring the project and other relevant work.

The state-run road developer estimated at Tk 13.24 billion for the project styled ‘Improvement of RHD roads in Dinajpur town (N 508, R-586, Z-5805 & 5806, Z-585) Under Dinajpur Road Division’.

It has sought approval of the project from the Planning Commission under which 18.09 km road will be widened into four lanes and another 16.70 km into two lanes.

The entire Tk 13.24 billion has been proposed to spend from internal resources, sources said.

An official of the commission said they were scrutinising the project seriously as the estimated cost seemed higher.

“It’s unfortunate that when the country is struggling with forex reserve, the RHD has included foreign training for such a small-length road. Even, it has kept aside a good amount for consultancy.”

“We’re very cautious about the issue of the country’s foreign-currency reserves,” he added.

According to the project proposal, the RHD has kept aside Tk 5.74 million for planting trees on 24-km road and Tk 2.99 million for uprooting trees.

It has also kept aside Tk 304.96 million for installing street lights on the 37.87km road under the project.

A total of Tk 208.5 million is proposed for utility-shifting work on the 35km road alignment under the Tk 13.24 billion project in the northern town.

When asked, a senior RHD official said the project cost was comparatively higher because of the location of the roads in the Dinajpur municipality area.

“We’ve estimated the costs to execute the project in time. We hope to get our project approved soon so that we can complete it within the December 2026 deadline,” he told the FE requesting anonymity.