Economic Reporter :
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on Tuesday cleared nine projects involving Tk 2,422.27 crore.
The approval came at the weekly ECNEC meeting held with its Chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair at the NEC Conference Room in the city.
“Today nine projects with a total estimated cost of Tk 2,422.27 crore were approved. Of the cost, Tk 2,108.45 crore will be borne from the national exchequer and the rest Tk 313.82 from the own fund of an organisation concerned,” said Planning Division Secretary Md Nurul Amin while briefing reporters after the meeting.
Of the approved projects, five are new while the four others are revised ones.
Of the new projects, one is ‘Acquiring necessary land and development of other ancillary facilities for India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline Project’ involving Tk 306.23 crore, which would be borne from the own fund of the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC).
Meghna Petroleum Limited, on behalf of BPC, will implement the project by June 2022. The project was taken for helping construction of a 130-km underground petroleum pipeline — 5 kms in Indian part and 125 kms in Bangladesh part — from Numaligarh Refinery Limited in Siliguri of India to Parbatipur Depot under Dinajpur district of Bangladesh.
The Planning Division secretary said a project of Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd was placed at the meeting to extend its network at the village level alongside modernisation of the 5G network, but the Prime Minister asked authorities concerned to conduct a feasibility study for the project by a third party to ascertain where Teletalk towers are needed before placing it again at the Ecnec meeting.
Sheikh Hasina directed the Teletalk authorities to infuse dynamism into its activities, said Nurul Amin.
The four other fresh projects are upgrading of Baneswar (Rajshahi)-Sarda-Charghat-Bagha-Lalpur (Natore)-Ishwardi (Pabna) district highway into regional highway with an estimated cost of Tk 554.30 crore, Protection of both embankments of Kushiara River in front of the Bibiana Power Plant under Habiganj district with Tk 573.48 crore, Maintenance and reconstruction of 8 industrial estates of BSCIC with Tk 74.25 crore, and establishing 50-bed kidney dialysis centre at medical colleges and 10-bed kidney dialysis centre at district Sadar hospitals with Tk 255.22 crore.
