Staff Reporter:
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) yesterday approved a total of 13 development projects involving an overall estimated cost of Taka 8,333.28 crore, including two projects in the energy sector for facilitating gas exploration.
The approval came from a meeting of the ECNEC with Chief Adviser and ECNEC Chairperson Profes-sor Dr Muhammad Yunus in the chair at the NEC conference room in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area yesterday.
Of the total projects cost, Tk 4,437.82 crore will come from the government’s fund, Tk 1,225.36 crore as project assistance, while the remaining Tk 2,670.09 crore will be borne from the concerned organiza-tion’s own funds.
Among the approved schemes, seven are new projects, five are revised ones, while one project got an extension of duration without increasing cost.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Planning Adviser Dr Wahiduddin Mahmud said that the meeting has decided to form a committee, headed by Land Adviser Ali Imam Mozumder, to ascertain the volume of unutilized khas land that lies with the various ministries and divisions across the country after taking information from the concerned district administration.
He said that the committee has been tasked to prepare its report within the next two months after taking necessary inputs from the field-level.
The Planning Adviser said before taking any development projects in the future, the issue of utilizing the khas land which remained unutilized for long would be given preference instead of using farm and ara-ble land.
Regarding the slow ADP implementation progress during the July-August period of the current fiscal year which reached 2.39 percent, Dr Mahmud said that they would hold an inter-ministerial meeting next week on the progress of ADP implementation.
He also informed that the interim government wants to revise the ADP for the current fiscal year within next February.
Referring to the amendments to the Public Procurement Rules, 2025, the Planning Adviser said that this would be a “silent milestone” in the government’s procurement process as no vested quarter would be able to manipulate anymore the tendering process with the amendments to the rules.
Besides, he said that the government would not take foreign loans unwisely without considering the con-sequences and benefits. “We’ve taken foreign loans in limited scale during our tenure which was deemed very necessary. We’re not interested in taking only soft term loans…we don’t want to raise unwisely our debt burden,”
He said that projects would be framed by the implementing agencies in line with the priority and thus those would be sent to the Economic Relations Division (ERD) for seeking foreign funding if deemed necessary.
After analyzing the proposals of funding from the development partners, the government would take decisions, he added.
The Planning Adviser also noted that it needs to be unearthed why it often takes much cost while imple-menting projects with foreign funding like why the per kilometer road construction or bridge construc-tion or metro construction costs were high in the past compared to other countries.
Dr Mahmud also underscored the need for taking early preparations by the executing agencies in land acquisition before rolling out the implementation work of the development projects.
He said that due to the relentless government efforts and strict monitoring, irregularities in the develop-ment schemes have gone down significantly.
Referring to the two energy sector projects which were approved yesterday, the Planning Adviser said that the government has been trying its best to explore more wells through enhancing the capacity of BAPEX.
Besides, the government also wants to reduce its LNG import dependency, he added.
The projects approved in the meeting are:-
Empowerment of Women through ICT (Phase-2, 3rd revised) under the Ministry of Women and Chil-dren Affairs with an additional cost of Taka 57.86 crore; Modernization of research labs and infrastruc-ture development at Dhaka University of Engineering and Technology (DUET), Gazipur with Taka 866.55 crore; Procurement of a 2,000 HP rig with Taka 577.23 crore; Drilling of four evaluation cum development wells in Shahbazpur and Bhola and one exploration well in Shahbazpur with Taka 1,555.66 crore, Modernization of Nesco’s electricity network infrastructure development and power distribution system with Taka 1,184.43 crore; Export Competitiveness for Jobs (EC4J, 3rd revised) under the Com-merce Ministry with a reduced cost of Taka 158.9 crore.
Besides, the other approved projects are: Construction of multipurpose cyclone shelters in coastal areas (Phase-3) under the Disaster Management and Relief Ministry with Taka 636.09 crore; Sheikh Hasina Specialized Jute Textile Mill (1st Revised for Completion)” renamed as “Jamuna Specialized Jute and Textile Mill (1st Revised)” under the Textiles and Jute Ministry with a reduced cost of Taka 479.03 crore; Khulna Water Supply Project (Phase-2) with Taka 2,598.59 crore; Land acquisition and develop-ment for solid waste management initiative at Kodomrosul in Narayanganj City Corporation, 1st revised with an additional cost of Taka 106.08 crore; Integrated Service and Livelihood for Displaced People from Myanmar and Host Communities Improvement Project (LGED part) with Taka 600 crore; Sylhet Osmani International Airport Expansion (Phase-1, 1st revised) with an additional cost of Taka 470.87 crore and Construction of multi-storey flats for government officials and employees at Mirpur Paikpara, Dhaka (1st revised, 4th extension) with a reduced cost of Taka 1.25 crore.
Besides, the ECNEC meeting was also apprised about 11 projects which were earlier approved by the Planning Adviser.
