Despite the fact that in the 2022-23 budget proposal presented on Thursday the ADP has increased by 9.2 per cent compared to the fiscal year 2021-22, it would be really a big challenge for the government to manage funds for the new mega projects to be started soon as well as repayment of loan for the projects that have been completed or going to be completed soon. The size of the ADP for FY 23 has been fixed at a record Tk 246,066 crore against the backdrop of economic fallout of the Russian-Ukraine war and the Covid-19 pandemic that raged for two years.
The government took up many fast track mega projects in the communication and transport infrastructure such as Padma Bridge, Dhaka Metro Rail, and the first underground metro rail, known as Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Line-1, another metro line MRT Line-5 (northern route), the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway expansion project and the Dhaka-Ashulia Elevated Expressway project.
While Padma Bridge and Dhaka Metro Rail are supposed to be operational in the current year, the other ones are likely to kick off in FY 23. The Dhaka-Ashulia Elevated Expressway’s original deadline is coming to an end this month even though the project has not even started yet. Here also the cost will almost double in the revised budget of the project.
But if planned properly with zero tolerance towards corruption, the fast track mega projects that the government has taken so far since it came to power in 2009 would have been a boon for Bangladesh and its economy. But that was not to be so. Due to poor planning, the government had to revise and increase the cost and deadlines of completion of many projects several times. Apart from poor planning, uncertainty over funding as well as the Covid-19 pandemic had also been responsible for delaying the projects.
In an economy like Bangladesh where funds of most development projects come from foreign loans, the repayment of loans of these projects will indeed be a great drag to its economy. However, though it has now become a headache for the government to repay the loan from foreign sources, the inauguration of the country’s longest Padma Bridge, the first metro rail in the capital are expected to impact the communication system of the country hugely. But if mega projects would not have been mega sources for corruption, with much lesser money these projects could have been implemented and loan repayment would not have posed a great challenge before the nation.
