The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) has approved nine projects involving an overall estimated cost of Tk 75.39 billion.
The approval came from the 3rd ECNEC meeting of the current fiscal year at the NEC conference room in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar on Sunday with its chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
“Of the total project cost, Tk 67.52 billion will come from the government portion, Tk 2.58 billion from the organisation’s own fund while the rest of Tk 5.29 billion from project assistance,” BSS reports quoted Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.
Of the approved nine projects, eight are new while one is a revised project.
The day’s ECNEC meeting also approved a project for framing a master plan for developing the infrastructures of some 183 non-municipal upazila towns involving Tk 13.8 billion in a bid to improve the living standards of people.
The LGED under the Local Government Division will implement the project titled ‘Formulation of master plan at upazila towns (non-municipal) and development of basic infrastructures,” by June 2022 with entire GoB fund.
The project is expected to help reducing the pressure of growing population on the big cities and towns of the country.
According to the project proposal, some 309 upazila towns have already been upgraded to pourashavas (municipality) under various categories out of the country’s 492 upazilas.
“The important urban infrastructure development project (1st phase)” has already been implemented in those 309 upazilas from January, 2011 to June, 2018 with Tk 12.58 billion to improve the living standards of the pourashava citizens through improving the necessary infrastructures.
Besides, currently “The important urban infrastructures development project (2nd phase)” is under implementation in those upazilas from January 2018 to December, 2021 to further improve infrastructures there with Tk 34.66 billion.
Apart from this, development of various physical infrastructures has been continuing in those upazilas under some foreign aided projects.
Since there was no single or big project to carry out infrastructural development in the rest of 183 non-municipal upazila towns, the Local Government Division drafted the project to ensure basic civic facilities like road, traffic management, sanitation and waste management in those selected upazila towns.
Under the project, each non-municipal upazila town under the project would get Tk 4.8 million for framing the master plan while Tk 63.7 million for infrastructural development.
The main project operations include formulation of master plans for some 183 upazila towns, construction and reconstruction of some 560 kilometer roads, construction of some 915 meter bridges and culverts apart from construction and reconstruction of drains.
The ECNEC meeting approved a Tk 25.11 billon project to expand the scope for science education in 200 government colleges across Bangladesh.
The Secondary and Higher Education Division under the Ministry of Education will implement ‘the Expansion of Science Education project’ by June 2021.
Noting that the importance of science and technology is indispensable in the current world, Kamal said the interest of the country’s students and youth folks has declined over science education in recent times.
According to the data of the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics, students in science education section have declined by 11.12 percent compared to arts and commerce education at the higher secondary level during 1990 to 2013.
So, Kamal said, there is no alternative to taking immediate measures to remove the barriers in science education.
Under the circumstances, the project has been placed and approved which aims to increase infrastructural facilities in some 200 government colleges to expand science education side by side increasing the capacity of the teachers and increasing scope for conducting researches in science and technology.
The main project operations include construction of one six-storey academic building in 176 government colleges having rooms for teachers, classrooms, IT lab-cum-language rooms, multipurpose halls, common rooms, rest rooms, upward extension of existing academic buildings in 18 colleges alongside renovation of academic buildings in six colleges, construction of 164-seat male and female hostels in 47 colleges, and providing ICT equipments, furniture and office equipments to some 200 government colleges and 47 hostels.
The ECNEC meeting also approved a project to develop the physical infrastructures of Gazipur City Corporation in a bid to address the acute traffic congestion in the city alongside reducing the water logging problem spending around Tk 6.61 billion.
The Gazipur City Corporation under the Ministry of LGRD will implement the project with an estimated cost of Tk 6.61 billion will be implemented by June 2020.
The main objectives of the project are to address the existing acute traffic congestion in the city through building newer roads and repairing the existing streets. Besides, new drains will be constructed while the existing ones will be repaired to address the water logging in that city.
The main project operations include construction of 18.08 kilometers RCC road, construction of 122.54 kilometers RCC drains, some 224.34 kilometers bituminous carpeting road construction.
The other approved projects are Construction of CHT Complex in Dhaka’s Bailey Road, 1st revised, with Tk 1.94 billion, Procurement of 35 commercial and 8 supporting vessels for BIWTC and construction of 2 slipway with Tk 13.2 billion, installing and introducing optical-fiber-based telecommunications system on 575 kilometers of Secondary lines under Bangladesh Railway with Tk 687 million, Construction of cleaners residence under Chittagong City Corporation with Tk 2.32 billion, Increasing the resilience of distressed community through infrastructural skills development and information (Provati) with Taka 7.58 billion, and Installation of five lakh smart pre-paid meters under Northern Electricity Supply Company Limited area with Taka 4.15 billion.