The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) on Tuesday approved the ‘Establishment of Four-Tier National Data Centre’ with an outlay of Tk 1516.91 crore that envisages to ensure the optimum use of ICT in government activities.
The approval came from the 9th Ecnec meeting of the current fiscal year held at the NEC conference room in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area. Briefing reporters after the meeting, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said a total of four development projects were approved yesterday with an estimated cost of Tk 2,474.95 crore. “Of the total project cost, Tk 1089.54 crore will come from the national exchequer while the rest of Tk 1,385.41 crore from project assistance,” he said.
State Minister for Finance and Planning MA Mannan was present at the briefing. Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) under the ICT Division will implement the project by June 2018. Of the estimated project cost of Tk 1516.91 crore, the government will provide Tk 317.55 crore while the rest of Tk 1199.36 crore as project assistance from China EXIM Bank.
The Planning Minister said the capacity of the existing data centre is inadequate as there is a demand for over 200 racks at the National Board of Revenue (NBR), Land Ministry, DLRS, banking and financial institutions, educational institutions and power division.
Besides, there is a need for an exclusive high security building for ensuring security to the data centre. “The project has been approved under the circumstances,” the Planning Minister said.
Once the project is implemented, he said, it would be possible to make all the activities of the government paperless.
Currently, the BCC with the state fund is setting up II Tier Certified Data Centre which is being extended by Bangla GovNet and Info Sarker project.
Under the establishment of IV Tier National Data Centre, an Uptime Institute Certified IV Tier data centre would be set up to ensure use of ICT in government activities as well as keeping the data centre safe and secure.
The building for the data centre will be built on seven acres of land at No 4 block at Kaliakoir Hi-Tech Park while the hosting capacity of the shared data centre of the government will be enhanced.
The project will also help the government materialise the ‘Vision 2021’ through enhancing working skills, ensuring transparency, accountability, proper utilisation of resources, proper planning and overall improving the standards of services in public administration.
Meeting sources said that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the meeting thanked all the members and officials of the Planning Commission for their efforts saying that Bangladesh received the highest UN accolade ‘Champions of the Earth’ Award and ICT Sustainable Development Award from ITU due to the all-out support from the country’s people.
