Development of transportation systems &

transportation in Bangladesh
Important Transportation Systems
i) Roadways or highways
The transportation by road is the only mode, which could give
maximum service to one and all.
The other three modes have to depend on this transportation
for service to and from their respective terminals.
This mode can provide independent facility.
The road network is therefore needed not only to serve as
feeder system for other modes of transportation and to
supplement them, but also to provide independent facility for
road travel by a well planned network of roads throughout the
country.
ii) Railways
The transportation by railway track could be advantageous
between the stations for longer distances.
These railway tracks could serve as arteries for transportation by
land and the roads could serve as feeder system for
transportation to the interior parts and to the intermediate
localities between the railway stations.
iii) Waterways
Transportation by water is the slowest among the four modes;
but this mode needs minimum energy to haul unit load through
unit distance.
The transportation by water is possible between the ports on the
sea routes or along the rivers or canals where inland
transportation facilities are available.
iv) Airways
The transportation by air is the fastest amongst the four modes. It
provides more comfort and saves time between the airports.
Contributions of Transportation
Transportation contributes to the economical, industrial, social and
cultural development and safety aspects of any country. Such as
• Transportation is vital for economic development of any region
since every commodity produced whether it is food, clothing,
industrial products or medicine needs transport to all stages from
production to distribution.
• In the production stage, transportation is required for carrying
raw materials like seeds, manure, coal, steel etc.
• In the distribution stage, transportation is required from the
production centers viz. farms and factories to the marketing
places and later to the retailers and the consumers for
distributions.
• In the safety stage, transportation is essential for strategic
movement in emergency for defense of the country and to
maintain better law and order.
• In rural development, improvement in transportation in rural
areas there could be faster development in agricultural, cottage
industries, education, health care etc.
Characteristics/Services of road transport: It is an
accepted fact that all modes of transportation, road
transport is the nearest to the people. Briefly the services
of the road transport are-
• It provides door to door service.
• It gives maximum flexibilities for travel with reference to
route, direction, time and speed of travel etc. through any
type of vehicle.
• It serves as feeder system for other modes of
transportation i.e. the passengers and the goods have to be
first transported by road before reaching a railway station
or a seaport or an airport.
• It may provide independent facility for road travel by a
well-planned network of roads throughout the country.
• Road can be used by all sorts of vehicles like bullock
carts, rickshaws, cycles, scooters, cars etc.
• It requires a relatively small amount of investment for the
government.
• The road network alone could serve the remotest villages
of any country.
• Roads play an important role to cultural, agricultural,
enhancing land value, defense of any country etc.
 Trend of Road development & Bangladesh
Past
The oldest mode of travel obviously was on the footpaths.
First hard surface in Mesopotamia in 3500 BC. After
invention of wheel.
First road surface on which there is some authentic record is
that of Assyrian empire in 1900 BC.
First large scale road during the period of Roman Empire for
military operations known as Roman Roads. One of the
Roman roads is Appian Way was built in 312 BC(fig.2.1).
The cost of construction was very high.
Until the 18th century there is no evidence of any new road
construction except Roman road like construction. Pierre
Tresaguet (1716-1796), an inspector general of road in
France in 1764 AD. And his method of construction was
implemented in 1775 during the regime of Nepolean(fig.2.2).
Thomas Telford (1757-1834) a civil engineer in London, began his
work in early 19th century(fig.2.3).
John Macadam (1756-1836) a surveyor general of roads in England
developed a new concept of road construction, which was known by
the year 1827. This is the first method based on scientific thinking
and hence became very popular far and wide(fig.2.4).
Water Bound Macadam (WBM)- Water used as binding material in
macadam construction.
Tar Macadam- Coal tar used as binding material in macadam
construction in 1848 in England.
Sheet Asphalt- In 1858 in Paris . And it was used up to 1907(fig.5).
Bitulithic Pavements- First hot mix used in 1910 in U.S. (Topeka,
Kansas). 6% bituminous cement + graded aggregates (7.5cm to dust
for reducing air void) in the wearing course.
Present
• Flexible pavement or bituminous concrete road
Flexible pavements are those, which on the whole have low
or negligible flexural strength and are rather flexible in their
structural action under the loads.
The flexible pavement layers reflects the deformation of the
lower layer of the pavement or soil sub-grade is undulated,
the pavement surface also gets undulated(fig.6).
• Rigid pavement or cement concrete road
Rigid pavements are those, which possess note worthy
flexural strength or rigidity.
The stresses are not transferred from grain to grain to the
lower layers as in the flexible pavement layers(fig.7).
 Road development in this sub-continent
The excavation of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa have revealed the
existence of roads as early as 2500 to 3500 BC.

In 400 BC, Kautilya, the first prime minister of emperor Chandra

Gupta Mouray laid down the rules (Arthasastra) about regulating
the depth of roads for various purposes and for different kind of
traffic.

In 500 AD, emperor Ashoka had improved the roads and the
facilities for the travelers.

In the Patahan and Mugul period, roads were built running from
north-west to the eastern areas the Gangatic plains, linking also the
coastal and central parts in these periods, roads were greatly
improved.
At the beginning of British rule, the conditions of roads deteriorated
prior to the introduction of railways, a number of trunk roads were
metalloid and bridges were provided mainly on the remains of old
roads, which existed except for providing feeder roads to the railways.

After the 1st world war, increasing motor vehicles demanded a better
road network. in response to the resolution, an Indian road
development committee was as appointed by the government with
M.R. Joykar as chairman in 1927. According to the recommendation
of the Joykar committee, Central Road Fund was formed by the year
1929, the semi-official technical body called Indian Road
Congress(IRC) was formed in 1934.

The present IEB (Former EPEI) has been established in 1948.

BRRL , a road research related organization.
Road density values of some of the developed and developing
countries (1981/2012)
Country Rd. Density Country Rd. Density
(km/100km2 area) (km/100km2 area)

Afghanistan 3/6.5 New Zealand 35/35

Egypt 3/6.5 India 46/101
Nepal 5/12 USA 68/68
Australia 11/11 Hungary 94/212
Nigeria 12/21 Italy 97/162
Pakistan 13/33 France 146/187
Malaysia 14/30 Great Britain 153/162
Brazil 16/21 Netherlands 225/330
Greece 28/89 Japan 296/319
Greenland 0.007 Sudan 0.5
Bangladesh 45/166 The World 25
In Bangladesh, the basic road network under RHD,
according to RHD records is recapitulated as follows (1991)

Road Road Types (km) Total Length

Category Paved Partly Gravel Earth (91/2011)
paved
National 2728 52 - 54 2834/3479
Regional 1271 83 - 28 1382/4222
Feeder A 3560 2021 147 3014 8742/13248
Total 7559 2156 147 3096 12958/20949

An additional 2135 km of recently Feeder A roads were to be

added to the list. So accordingly the RHD network totaling
15115 km (1991).
 List of roads in Bangladesh

List of roads in Bangladesh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.htm