India has disbursed the entire $200 million grant it had pledged for the Padma Bridge project under a $1 billion loan agreement signed with Bangladesh.
An Economic Relations Division official told bdnews24.com that the country had disbursed $50 million in the last tranche of the grant in late June.
“The entire grant is being utilised in the Padma Bridge project. That’s why the money has been parked in the Bangladesh Bank’s Forex Reserves and Treasury Management Department.”
The Department’s General Manager Kazi Sayedur Rahman told bdnews24.com: “We’ve received the entire $200 million of the grant amount. Now we’ll spend it in accordance with government’s priority.”
Former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh had announced the $1 billion line of credit during his Dhaka visit four years ago.
After the World Bank had pulled out of the Padma Bridge financing, the government announced that it would implement the country’s largest infrastructure project involving $3 billion with its own funds.
China’s Major Bridge Engineering Company has been awarded the construction works of the six-kilometre bridge on the River Padma.
The government plans to build by 2018 the bridge that will connect the southern districts with Dhaka.
‘Start work on new loan’
India has asked Bangladesh to take initiatives to implement the $2 billion loan agreement which was signed during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Dhaka last month.
Indian High Commissioner Pankaj Saran made the call at a meeting with Bangladesh Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque in Dhaka recently.
The foreign ministry has, in a letter, informed the ERD of the Indian call.
The Indian high commission has also sent a letter to ERD Secretary Mohammad Mejbahuddin proposing the addition of two projects to the ones to be implemented with Indian loan.
The two sides agreed on the implementation of 13 projects while signing the agreement.
Additional Secretary at ERD Asif-uz-Zaman told bdnews24.com: “Work on the projects with Indian loan will start soon.”
“However, memorandums of understanding will have to be signed with the Indian loan provider, Exim Bank, on financing the projects. A date for that is yet to be fixed,” he added.
The two projects whose inclusion India has proposed are the construction of the Ishwardi Inland Container Depot (ICD) and the 30-kilometre Bilunia-Feni railway track.
The first 13 projects are supposed to get $1.82 billion from the Indian loan. The new two projects will get $173.2 million.
The ERD officials said India was giving priority to three projects.
They are the upgrading of the Syedpur railway workshop to a coach factory, construction of a 51-km road from Ashuganj river port to Akhaurha, and the construction of an inland container terminal at Ashuganj.
The projects will get $85 million, $274 million and $59.1 million respectively.
The other projects to be implemented with Indian loan include:
· Procurement of trucks and buses for Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation,
· Purchase of equipments for Roads and Highways Department,
· Building of high-tech parks in 12 districts,
· Construction of Barhapukuria-Kaliakoir power transmission line,
· Construction of Parbatipur-Kawnia rail line,
· Modernisation of four 49 polytechnic institutions, and
· Setting up of four medical colleges, and a national burn and plastic surgery institution.
Source: bdnews24