STORY: China's road-building technologies win acclaim by helping reduce costs in Bangladesh
SHOOTING DATE: July 3, 2024
DATELINE: July 11, 2024
LENGTH: 00:02:40
LOCATION: Dhaka
CATEGORY: ECONOMY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the highway
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (Chinese): LIU XIAOBO,  Deputy chairman, general manager of SRBG
3. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): SYED MOINUL HASAN, Chief engineer of Bangladesh's Roads and Highways Department
4. SOUNDBITE 3 (English): ABM AMIN ULLAH NURI, Secretary of the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges of Bangladesh

STORYLINE:

China's road-building technologies have assisted in addressing the challenges facing the design and construction of Bangladesh's Dhaka Bypass Expressway, which connects the capital of Dhaka to the largest southern port of Chattogram.

Bangladesh has long suffered from poor road conditions, including flexible pavement and lack of load-bearing capacity and stability. Additionally, the reliance on the import of road construction materials leads to high construction costs.

The "semi-rigid pavement" technology adopted by Sichuan Road and Bridge (Group) Co., Ltd. (SRBG) during the construction of the Dhaka Bypass Expressway has effectively addressed such challenges.

SOUNDBITE 1 (Chinese): LIU XIAOBO, Deputy chairman, general manager of SRBG
"The ground material conditions in the Dhaka region of Bangladesh are quite different from those in our country. The scarcity of crushed stone is very notable here. The crushed stones need to be imported from Iraq, which would push up costs due to sea transportation. Now, by adopting our Chinese technology and standards, we can construct high-quality roads by utilizing the local natural sand for construction and reducing the use of crushed stone or even totally without using them. This approach has significantly reduced costs. "

SOUNDBITE 2 (English): SYED MOINUL HASAN, Chief engineer of Bangladesh's Roads and Highways Department
"Since this semi-rigid pavement technology, kind of new in Bangladesh, we, with the help of the Chinese company and Chinese engineers and also following some of their standards, we can minimize the use of local bricks, which is not good for environment. And in the future, we hope to use this technology in our other civil work projects and so that it can spread all over Bangladesh."

SOUNDBITE 3 (English): ABM AMIN ULLAH NURI, Secretary of the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges of Bangladesh
"Road construction cost in our country is so high because of our soil condition. That is why we have to adopt new technology, sustainable technology, eco-friendly technology, less-cost technology. So I think this project will be the help for us to take the new technology. My hope (is) in future Chinese people, Chinese contractor, they will try to introduce new technology which is being used in their country. Chinese government (and) Chinese people are our good friends. We are getting the support from the Chinese people."

Currently, 65 percent of this key transportation artery has been completed, and it is expected to open to traffic in 2025.
   
Once the expressway is fully completed, the original two-hour journey will be shortened to half an hour.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Dhaka.
(XHTV)