Staff Reporter:
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) yesterday approved 13 pro-jects involving an overall estimated cost of Taka 12,532.28 crore. The approval came from the 7th meeting of the ECNEC in this fiscal year (FY25) held at the NEC Bhaban.
ECNEC Chairperson and Chief Adviser Prof Dr Muhammad Yunus presided over the meeting.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Planning Adviser Dr Wahiduddin Mahmud said,“of the total project cost, Taka 4,097.23 crore will come from the government of Bangladesh portion, Taka 7,328.95 crore as loan while the rest of Taka 1,106.10 crore from the concerned organization’s own fund,” he added.
Of the approved 13 projects, nine are new while four are revised projects.
The Mongla Port Authority under the Ministry of Shipping will implement the expansion and modernization of Mongla Port facilities project by December 2028.
Of the total project cost of Taka 4,068.23 crore, Taka 475.33 crore will come from the government of Bangladesh portion while the rest of Taka 3,592.90 crore as loan from China.
The main objective of the project is to expand the modern facilities at Mongla Port with enhancing its container handling capacity.
Noting that the Mongla Port is very important considering its geopolitical aspect, the Planning Adviser said that the government wants to turn the Port as a ‘regional hub’ for which container handling facility would be enhanced there.
He informed that this project has been undertaken after thorough review while China would fi-nance most of the project funding.
Answering to a question, he said that with the expansion of container handling capacity through implementation of this project, international trade could be expanded further with Bhutan, Nepal and China.
Dr Mahmud said that they would review the development budget next week in a bid to finalize the Revised Annual Development Program (RADP).
He noted that since Bangladesh is graduating from the LDCs, soft-term loans would not be availa-ble from the multilateral development partners in the future while there would be also burden on the state coffee for repaying the principal amount and interests of the foreign loans.
Side by side, he indicated that the government’s loan burden for implementing the mega projects would also increase in the coming days.
The other projects approved in the meeting are- Uttar Kattali Catchment Sanitation in Chattogram Metropolis with Taka 2,797.22 crore, Improved seed production and development of rice, wheat and corn, 3rd phase with Taka 474.68 crore, Modernization and development (2nd phase) of seed production, processing and distribution management of BADC with Taka 292.86 crore, Food Safe-ty Testing Capacity Development with Taka 2,409.70 crore, Digging some four evaluation-cum-development wells of Titas and Kamta Fields with Taka 1,255 crore, conducting 3-D Seismic Sur-vey at Habiganj, Bakhrabad and Meghna Fields with Taka 454.25 crore, Digging Sylhet-12 number well (oil well) with Taka 255.25 crore, Ghorashal 4th unit re-powering, 3rd revised with an addi-tional cost of Taka 96.08 crore, Development of power distribution system of Chattogram Zone, 2nd phase, 2nd revised with an additional cost of Taka 164.15 crore, Strengthened Service Delivery systems for Improved Migration Management and Sustainable Reintegration with Taka 60.10 crore, Establishment and infrastructural development of government primary schools at Dhaka me-tropolis and Purbachal, 1at revised, with an additional cost of Taka 213.62 crore, and Establish-ment of digital labs at educational institutions, 2nd phase, 2nd revised with a reduced cost of Taka 8.86 crore.
Concerned Advisers attended the meeting while Planning Commission members and secretaries concerned were present.
