The road network of Bangladesh comprises national highways (major roads),regional highways (secondary roads), zilla roads (district or tertiary roads), upazilla roads, union roads, village roads and urban roads. Major arterial roads (national, regional and zilla roads) are constructed, developed and maintained by the Roads and Highways Department (RHD). The Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) constructs and maintains the upazilla, union and village roads, whereas, City Corporations deal with urban roads. Asset management requires efficient maintenance of roads pavement andbridges, this has to be considered as protecting a considerable national asset. Current government's maintenance funding is not sufficient for adequate management of roads and bridges. As a result, the maintenance backlogis increasing every year. RHD has a Road and Bridge Asset Management System (RAMS), designed to assist with the maintenance of its large assets. RAMS incorporates the Road Maintenance and Management System (RMMS) databaseand the Highway Development and Management Tool (HDM-4), backed up by regular annual surveys for traffic and road condition data. LGED pavement management system is mainly based on data collection and engineering judgment. LGED is now in the process of introducing HDM to assist with its maintenance management. City Corporations do not have any formal pavement management system. Analysis shows unless the asset is protected by maintaining the network, the whole investment may be jeopardized. Enhanced spending on preventive maintenance will require increased funding for roads. As in manyother countries, Bangladesh is now in the process of developing a Road Maintenance Fund, as an alternative means of meeting ongoing maintenance costs. A Road Fund Board is going to be established soon. Bangladesh is considering the introduction of Performance Based Maintenance contracts, as an essential component of its road asset management. The Government is encouraging Private Public Partnership (PPP) in the transport sector of Bangladesh, particularly on highways and expressways, including mass-transit, bridges, tunnels, flyovers, interchanges, city roads, bus terminals, commercial car parking, etc. Bangladesh Private Sector Infrastructure Guidelines have been prepared and recently accepted by Government. The Government is planning to implement an expressway project, of 2nd Dhaka Chittagong National Highway on a Built Own Operate and Transfer (BOOT) basis. For the covering abstract see ITRD E139491.
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