The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on Tuesday approved nine projects involving Tk 6,551.27 crore.
The approval came in the ECNEC meeting with ECNEC Chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
The Premier joined the meeting virtually from her official Ganabhaban residence while Ministers, State Ministers, Planning Commission members and secretaries concerned attended it from the NEC Conference Room in the city's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Planning Minister MA Mannan said a total of nine projects were approved involving an overall estimated cost of Tk 6,551.27 crore.
"Of the total project cost, Tk 3,742.29 crore will come from the government of Bangladesh portion, Tk 26.22 crore from the concerned organization's own fund while the rest Tk 2,782.76 crore as project assistance," he said.
Among the approved nine projects, four are new while five others are revised ones.
Among them, the ECNEC approved a Tk 1,435.89 crore project to upgrade the Tangail-Delduar-Louhati-Saturia-Kawalipara Kalampur bus stand road regional highway to due standard and width to ensure safe and uninterrupted road communication system.
The planning minister said that the Roads and Highways Department under the Road Transport and Highways Division will implement the road upgradation project in Tangail by December, 2023.
Once the project is completed, safe and uninterrupted road communication will be established in Tangail, Delduar, Nagarpur, Dhamrai and Saturia upazilas with Manikganj and Dhaka in much lesser time, he added.
The main project operations include 73.44 hectares of land acquisition, construction of five PC girder bridges, widening and strengthening of pavements, construction of one grade separated intersection and one U-loop or underpass, construction of 31 RCC box culverts, 13.26 lakh cubic meter road embankment widening, and construction of drains.
Among the approved revised projects, the biggest is Dhaka WASA’s Sayedabad Water Treatment Plant Project (Phase-III) (First Revision) involving at Tk 7,518 crore, of which Tk 2,625.23 crore will come from the government exchequer and Tk 4,862.79 crore as project assistance and the remaining Tk 30 crore from the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority.
Earlier, the Local Government Division proposed an increase to the cost of the construction of the Sayedabad Water Treatment Plant Project by Tk 2,921 crore and sought an extension of the deadline by four more years.
The initial cost of the project was estimated at Tk 4,597.36 crore and the project was supposed to be completed by June 2020 which was later extended to June 2021 for the Covid pandemic.
According to the proposal, Dhaka WASA will treat 45 crore litres of water per day from the plant.
Once completed, the total capacity of the three water treatment plants including the existing two plants, Sayedabad Phase-I and Phase-II will be 90 crore litres per day.
However, other projects approved by ECNEC are improvement of agro-meteorological information system (first revised), establishment of Kushtia Medical College and Hospital, Kushtia (Second Amendment), establishment of two Agricultural Training Institutes (ATIs) in Jagannathpur and Mohanganj Upazilas, conservation of river banks, re-excavation of small rivers, canals and elimination of waterlogging in Pirganj upazila of Rangpur district, protection of right and left banks of Kirtinasha river in Shariatpur district, Barapukuria-Bogra-Kaliakair 400 KV line (first revised) and construction of railway from Khulna to Mongla Port (Second Amendment).
