‘Highway needs widening’

Cumilla-4 (Debidwar) MP Hasnat Abdullah has called for the immediate widening of the Comilla-Sylhet highway, describing the road as a “trail of deaths” due to frequent and fatal accidents.

Raising the issue on a point of order during a discussion on the President’s speech in Parliament on Wednesday, the lawmaker made an emotional appeal for urgent intervention. The session was chaired by Deputy Speaker Barrister Kayser Kamal.

He said road accidents in his constituency have reached alarming levels, claiming 23 lives in the current month alone. “The road in Debidwar has become a procession of deaths every day,” he said, adding that repeated appeals to the authorities had yielded no results due to bureaucratic delays.

Hasnat Abdullah also said that despite plans to upgrade the highway to six lanes under a Line of Credit (LoC) project, the road remains only about 18 feet wide even after 10 to 12 years.

He urged the authorities to take immediate steps to widen the highway, warning that public anger was growing in his constituency over the situation. “I can no longer face the people of my constituency,” he said, calling for a directive to the concerned ministry to expedite action.