The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) has approved a total of 5 projects involving an overall estimated cost of Tk 46.37 billion.
The approval came from a meeting of the ECNEC held at the NEC Conference Room in the capital’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area on Tuesday (Oct 22) with ECNEC Chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair, reports BSS.
Briefing the reporters after the meeting, Planning Minister MA Mannan said, “Of the total project cost, Tk 14.76 billion will come from the state exchequer while the rest of Tk 31.61 billion from project assistance.”
The ECNEC also approved the 1st revision of the Multipurpose Disaster Shelter Center Project with an estimated cost of Tk 31.71 billion mainly to protect the people of the coastal areas from various natural disasters.
The Planning Minister said some 556 cyclone shelters are being built under the project which would be mainly used for conducting academic activities of primary education and other academic purposes.
Mannan said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the meeting asked the authorities concerned to ensure necessary access roads, reservoirs for preserving rainwater, toilets and storerooms in those cyclone centres to ensure maximum facilities for the beneficiaries.
Under the project, there will also be a vertical and horizontal expansion of some 450 cyclone shelters side by side there will be the construction of some 182-kilometre access roads and construction of 656 meters of bridges and culverts.
The day’s ECNEC meeting also approved a project to set up a chancery complex at Jeddah in Saudi Arabia in a bid to facilitate the operations of the Bangladesh mission at Jeddah with an estimated cost of Tk 2.09 billion.
The Planning Minister said the operations of Bangladesh mission in Jeddah is currently run in a rented house, but Jeddah is commercially very important for Bangladesh for which the Chancery Complex would be built there.
Bangladesh Consulate General in Jeddah will implement the project by September 2023. Under the project, the chancery complex would be built at Bogdadia area in Jeddah.
The chancery complex building would be three-storied having a space of 6,354 square meters. Besides, there will be officers’ residential building having a space of 6060 square meters, staff residential building having a space of 6300 square meters.
The Planning Minister said PM Hasina in the meeting asked the authorities concerned to keep free access of the expatriates Bangladeshis in the Chancery Complex there once it is built.
She also stressed the need for keeping all necessary amenities there like spacious sitting arrangements, toilets and water facilities considering the huge number of expatriates there.
The Premier also underscored the need for further reducing the delay in processing and implementation of the development projects.
Answering to a question, Mannan said he stood again by his earlier remarks that “misuse is horrible than corruption.”
The ECNEC meeting also approved a proposal for increasing the timeframe of Establishment of National Institute of Laboratory Medicine and Referral Center (2nd revised) without increasing its cost.
The other projects approved in the meeting are Upgrading important regional highways into due standard and width (Rangpur Zone), 1st revised with Tk 9.94 billion, Development of Darshana-Mujibnagar regional highway with Tk 1.5 billion and Construction of Chashara-Khanpur-Hajiganj-Godnail-Adamjee EPZ Road with Tk 1.14 billion.