Anisur Rahman Khan :
The government has taken up a mega project involving Tk 3.25 lakh crore to protect and develop the Jamuna-Brahmaputra banks from Daikhawa to Sirajganj point under a ‘Jamuna River Economic Corridor Development Project’, which will be implemented in 15 years.
Meanwhile, the World Bank (WB) has already given its consent to provide $1.3 billion in loans for the project, and the government has also sought financial assistance from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), sources said.
A 205-kilometre area of the River Jamuna has been identified under ‘Jamuna River Economic Corridor Development Project’ primarily.
The poverty rate has come down to 25 per cent across the country, it is still 37 per cent in the districts along the banks of Jamuna. The project will play an important role in eliminating the inequality in poverty alleviation, observed the WB.
Meanwhile, a total of 80 projects have already been prepared as supporting projects. Of them, 65 are projects related to physical infrastructure, 15 are projects related to institutional capacity building and research based.
It will need $ 37 billion to implement the project.
However, the width of the river Jamuna is somewhere between 12 to 14 kilometers, somewhere from 18km to 20 kilometers and it will be reduced to 4.8 km like Bangabandhu Bridge area. River excavation will be
increased so that there is no problem in water flow even in the width like bridge area.
Besides, flood control initiatives will be taken during implementation of the project.
According to sources, there will be planned development on both banks while goods will be transported to India and Nepal, and Bhutan by increasing navigability through dredging, apart from roads and railways.
Sources said that the WB will disburse the fund immediate after approval the project by the ECNEC.
According to the WB, if the project involving $13.4 billion under the centennial Delta Plan is implemented, it will add $362 billion to the country’s economy up to 2044. The Dutch government had provided support in formulating the Delta Plan while assistance has also been sought from the World Bank, JICA, ADB, AIIB, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, the United Nations Development Programme, and the Food and Agriculture Organisation.
Around 500 sq. km or 50,000 hectares would be reclaimed by shrinking the width of the river to 8km from 16km under the project.
Besides, a 160-km-long four-lane highway will be constructed along the bank of the Jamuna-Brahmaputra from the upstream of the Bangabandhu Bridge to the Indian border at Kurigram.
If the navigability of the River Jamuna increases through dredging, a huge amount of land can be reclaimed and food production on both banks of the river will also be increased through sustainable irrigation, State Minister for Water Resources Zaheed Farooque told The New Nation. The erosion-prone banks of the Jamuna-Brahmaputra will be protected permanently with concrete constructions, he said adding that the development work including protection work of the riverbanks will be implemented in phases.
The 205-km-long both sides of the river banks would be well-protected after the project is executed, the state minister said, adding, “A period of 15 years would be required to complete the total project.”
It would be an economic hub after implementation of the project, the State Minister said.
Soon the project will be placed before the ECNEC for approval, he added. Earlier in 2015, the project was placed before the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) for approval, but Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sent it back to the ministry for some minor corrections.
The width of the river will be reduced in order to increase the flow, the state minister said, adding, “It would be possible to reclaim huge acres of lands after the river is shrunk. Industrial units, hotels, schools, universities and recreational institutions would be set up on the reclaimed lands,” Zaheed Farooque said. Of the World Bank’s proposed investment in the development of the economic corridor centring Jamuna, $2.8 billion will be spent on river dredging and excavation.
Some $3.7 billion has been proposed for spending on river training, while $5.9 billion will be spent on building economic zones. In addition, operating and maintaining various types of infrastructure will cost another $1 billion. In all, $13.4 billion has been identified as investment demand for the project.
According to the World Bank, once the project is completed river erosion, floods, and crop losses will be reduced and every family on the coast will be able to save $1,250 to $2,000 a year.
The World Bank also said that due to lack of navigability in Jamuna, no vessels weighing more than 500 tonnes can run there. If the depth of this river increases, the annual freight traffic between India and Bangladesh will treble from 35 lakh tonnes to 1.15 core tonnes. The amount will increase further if the goods are transported to Nepal and Bhutan.
In addition, the cost of transporting goods by sea is lower than that of by road and rail, and environmental damage can be prevented, said the World Bank report.
The people living beside the river Jamuna will get rid of from the river erosion after implementation of the project.
