FROM PAGE B1

established a review committee, to be led by Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, the prime minister’s finance and planning adviser, to assess all projects under the Annual Development Programme. The committee will examine the feasibility and economic rationale of each project, with authority to recommend cancellation, revision, or continuation.

Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, speaking at a post-meeting briefing, framed the session as the beginning of a systematic effort to clear a backlog of poorly justified public spending.

“We are currently going through what is effectively a backlog clearance process -- filtering out weaker proposals while advancing those deemed sound,” he said. “Once this clean-up phase is complete, the remaining legacy projects will be resolved in a phased manner.”

Meanwhile, Titumir, speaking about the review committee, said many projects had been approved without proper economic studies, with costs repeatedly inflated and returns consistently limited.

He called for a more accountable Annual Development Programme (ADP), noting that public capital expenditure had not kept pace with operating expenditure, with consequences for growth. “Projects will be evaluated on necessity, quality of surveys, cost control and long-term sustainability.”

The five approved projects saw a combined cost increase of Tk 483.43 crore in their revised estimates, of which Tk 390.84 crore will be financed from state funds and Tk 92.59 crore from project loans.

Among the schemes, the General Social Infrastructure Development Project-2 (GSIDP-2), being implemented by the Local Government Engineering Department, has been revised with its cost rising to Tk 1,450 crore and a new completion deadline set for June 2027.

The meeting also decided to increase the cost of the IT Training and Incubation Centre project to Tk 533.55 crore, with the timeline extended to June 2026. Besides, it revised a project to modernise diagnostic imaging facilities at eight divisional medical college hospitals, approving Tk 1,213.71 crore as cost and June 2028 as new deadline.

The meeting also approved the second revision of the Gopalganj Dental College and Hospital project, raising its cost to Tk 139.31 crore, with a target completion date of June 2026.

In contrast, the cost of the Char Development and Settlement Project-4 (CDSP-4) has been reduced to Tk 30.72 crore.