Dakar Saint Louis Highway Project

Inside the project

Goals of IFI investment (project objective)

With the objective of providing efficient, safe, and resilient connectivity along a regional transport corridor in western Bangladesh, the World Bank Group launched the Western Economic Corridor and Regional Enhancement (WeCARE) Program in 2020. Aligned with the World Bank’s WeCARE, AIIB launched a project with the Road Transport and Highways Division (RHD) of the Ministry of Roads, Transport and Bridges (MoRTB) to improve a section of the primary road network in Western Bangladesh.

The Road Transport and Highways Division (RHD) has prepared a detailed technical design for the project forward after conducting due diligence. The current feasibility design is being further reviewed to alleviate road safety and climate change-related risks. Within the context, AIIB requested GCA’s assistance to increase climate resilience in the Hatikumrul – Bonpara – Jhenaidah Phase I Road Improvement Project and to ensure RHD has proper guidelines to align the project with Paris Agreement. Project`s final deliverables obtained in February 2024.

Identified climate risks and adaptation gaps that GCA TA will address (adaptation need)

Climate change impacts cause damage to expensive transport assets and disrupt the services they provide. Damages to assets, loss of lives, and economic production loss associated with floods along the coast in 2017 were estimated to cost Senegal’s economy a total of $230 million or 1.4% of GDP. While engineering solutions are often prioritized, the resilience of infrastructure assets, and roads in particular, is driven in large part by downstream asset management.