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Jamuna Bridge okayed without railtrack
The National Economic Council on Sunday approved the much-talked Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge Project with an estimated cost of Tk 2500.90 crore, reports UNB.
The approval was given at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) with Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia in the chair.
Early construction of the proposed bridge over river Jamuna connecting country’s northern region with the eastern Part including the capital was an election pledge of ruling BNP.
The four-lane bridge will be 18.5 metre tn width and 2.7 kilometre in length with 16-kilometre entrance at both ends.
Initially, there will be no railway track, but provision has been kept for setting up metergauge ralltrack.
The bridge will also have second East-West electricity interconnector and gas pipeline.
Approval of the bridge, affordability of which has been questioned by World Bank over the years, tn the wake of Paris Consortium meet is seen by insiders as the new govern ment's move to press the Aki Club into acceptance of the project.
The ECNEC meeting was told the foreign exchange component of the construction cost equivalent to Tk 1498.66 crore was expected to be equally funded by World Bank. Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Japan. They will provide 150 million US dollar each in soft credit
The government will have to contribute Tk 1,000 crore-Tk 500 crore as COST (Customs Duty and Sales Tax) on import of construction material for the project and another Tk SOO crore through Internal resource mobilisation.
Already. Tk 281 crore has been raised from levies for the project, and the meeting observed the government would be able to mobilise the rest Tk 219 crore.
Although the World Bank, the principal donor which coordinated studies on the project. accepted the economic feasibility of the bridge, it has been questioning its "affordability" on the plea that it would absorbe Investments from other priority projects like health, education and poverty alleviation.
The Bank document on next Paris Club meet May 29-30 said the government of Bangladesh had not considered what investments in other sectors might be potentially squeesed by the Jamuna Bridge, to determine whether or not the bridge Is "affordable.
"World Bank also suggested for deferring the start of construction of the bridge til) the end of next fiscal.
The ECNEC meet, reliable sources said, considered several steps to make the project more cost-effective and affordable.
Superfluous expenditure from other projects might be diverted to the bridge project Some 25.000 employees of Bangladesh Railway and BADC. declared surplus, may be employed to the project instead of engaging new manpower.
It was also decided that the government would try to convince donors to exclude the power interconnector from the bridge project. The volume of land acquisition might alsq be slashed.
Today's ECNEC meeting also approved another project involving Tk 35.17 crore, including Tk 24.55 crore in foreign exchange, for procuring 80 railway wagons to carry 40-ft high cube containers.