Business Desk :
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) on Tuesday cleared four development projects, including Tk 6.93 billion (Tk 693-crore) one to install the third submarine cable.
The submarine cable project is aimed at expanding the country’s international telecommunication system as Bangladesh will get 6 terabyte per second of bandwidth from the new connection.
The approval came from the weekly Ecnec meeting held at the NEC conference room. Ecnec Chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina chaired the meeting joining it from Ganobhaban through a videoconference.
“Ecnec on Tuesday approved a total of four projects of three ministries. The total estimated cost of the projects is Tk 21.15 billion (only additional costs of three revised projects were counted here),” said Planning Commission member Prof Dr Shamsul Alam at a press briefing after the meeting.
Of the total cost, TK 14.4087 billion (Tk 1,440.87 crore) will come from the state coffer, while Tk 3.0083 billion (Tk 300.83 crore) from the funds of the agencies concerned, and the remaining Tk 3.7350 billion will come as loans from foreign sources – the World Bank and China, he said. Talking about the submarine project, another Planning Commission member Md Mamun-Al-Rashid said Bangladesh Submarine Company Limited will implement it by June 2024.
“If the third submarine cable is installed, our bandwidth will be increased by 6 terabyte per second,” he said.
