Infrastructure deficit in Bangladesh (Tasmia Tabassum Bristy)

 Infrastructure deficit in Bangladesh

Bangladesh, a south Asian watery and greenery country with thousands of natural resources now making significant effects on Asian economy. As it is surrounded and blessed by many natural resources this country has to face natural calamities frequently over the year and flooding is one of them. This fact makes it more difficult and expensive for a country like Bangladesh to take necessary steps to improve its infrastructure. Besides these natural calamities Bangladesh has a fast-growing economy, which has thousands of flaws which makes it more difficult to change the geo infrastructure of Bangladesh. Bangladesh govt also has to deal with its unstable political issues and corruption which sharply limited the resources to build new infrastructure and also maintaining the existing one. Because of its poor economy and lack of unity among the people from the colonial era Bangladesh inherited underdeveloped and unevenly distributed infrastructure and transportation network and lose many national treasures. It took over 30 years for Bangladesh to stable its economy and rebuilt new infrastructure and by now Bangladesh govt has been able to call the problem systematically and channel investments towards expanding its highways, railroads, seaports, and airports.Recentnly with international assistance Bangladesh govt has also started modernizing its telecommunication infrastructure to cope up with modern communication era.

According to the CIA World Factbook, Bangladesh inherited a network of 201,182 kilometers (125,014 miles) of primary and secondary roads and many other undeveloped sub roads , but only around 10 percent of them, or 19,112 kilometers (11,876 miles) are paved and usable. 

In June 1998, the huge US$1 billion Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge was completed after 4 years of construction, becoming the 12th-longest bridge as a symbol of modern infrastructure.

The bridge connected for the first time from the eastern and western parts of Bangladesh. The completion of this project made an important contribution to the development of the country's transportation network and significantly boosted the quality and speed of passenger and freight transportation, which made significant progress in the economy. The number of privately-owned cars grew throughout the 1990s, albeit from a very low level (there were 40,000 private cars in 1994). Many cars are very old and in poor repair and produce high levels of pollution on the congested roads of the capital and other major cities. Despite all the problems with the roads and the often-outdated equipment, 66 percent of all freight and 73 percent of all passengers are carried by roads; however, animal-driven carts, local transportations like rickshaw, tempo etc.  are still a part of the national landscape, as they provide the cheapest and most reliable transportation for people and goods in most of the country's rural areas.

Bangladesh was able to build a railway system of about 2,745 kilometers (1,706 miles), of which only 923 kilometers (573.5 miles) is a broad gauge (1.676-meter gauge) and the remaining 1,822 kilometers (1,132 miles) is narrow gauge (1.000-meter gauge), according to CIA estimates for 1998. Historically, the railway was built by the British colonial administration in 1884 before independence, running between Calcutta (now India) and Khulna (now Bangladesh). Rail services were halted following the Indo-Pakistan war in 1965. In the 1970s cargo trains resumed their services between the 2 countries According to a BBC report on 26 January 2001, the government of Bangladesh has expressed its interest in "seriously studying the potential of linking the national railways with the proposed Trans-Asian Railway Network." The Bangladeshi railway system remains a state-owned monopoly requiring large. So, it is clear that Bangladesh govt trying to develop their transportation infrastructure to avail it for foreign use and make international bonding with other developed countries

Communication Countries:	newspaper	radio	Tv users	Cable subscriber	Mobile phones	Fax machines	Personal computer	Internet hosts	Internet  users
	1996	1997	1998	1998	1998	1998	1998	1999	1999
Bangladesh	9	50	6	N/A	1	N/A	N/A	0.00	50
U.S	215	2146	847	244.3	256	78.4	458.6	1508.77	74100
India	N/A	121	69	18.8	1	0.2	2.7	0.18	2800
Burma	10	96	7	N/A	0	0.1	N/A	0.00	1

Reference:

 World Bank. World Development Indicators 2000

Tasmia Tabassum Bristy ID - 22209030
Section - 49