Dhaka has agreed to help Yangon build the highway at its own cost for establishing the road link, which afterwards will become a part of the Asian Highway.

Bangladesh already has upgraded its internal Dhaka-Teknaf highway to Asian Highway standard. Only the 55-km road from Guandung in Bangladesh to Buchidong in Myanmar remains to be completed to link the capitals of the two neighbours.

The group of experts will follow up the works done by a three-member survey team, led by Roads and Highways Division Additional Chief Engineer Abid Uddin, during its visit there, communications ministry sources said.

The first team visited the area earmarked for the Guandung-Buchidong road and examined its topographical features and suitability for road construction.

The team also had talks with the Myanmar authorities who offered to give full co-operation in the construction works, the sources said.

The Dhaka-Yangon highway will also help establish direct road link between Dhaka and Bangkok. As Myanmar is well connected by roads with its neighbours like Thailand and China, the 'look east' foreign policy of Dhaka will gain a fillip after Bangladesh establishes direct road links with the East Asian countries.

The communications ministry officials said the construction work would be a very difficult one, as a major portion of the designated area is hilly. Of the 55-km stretch, only 10-km is on plain land and the rest is bumpy.

Dhaka's decision to help Myanmar construct the link-road came after New Delhi had decided to build the Asian Highway bypassing Bangladesh. India signed a tripartite agreement on the road link with Myanmar and Thailand two years ago. But, it requires around 500-km extra road-length skirting Bangladesh.

India also helped Myanmar in constructing around 400-km of highways for establishing the direct road link between Bangkok and New Delhi through Myanmar via the northeastern Indian states of Assam and Monipur.

The Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific (ESCAP) of the UN took the initiative for building the Asian Highway network connecting 38 Asian countries and linking them to Europe via Turkey. The next ESCAP review meeting on the subject will be held in Shanghai, China in the last week of this month.