Work on the project began in July 2018 to acquire land by June 2020 to upgrade the existing road from Faridpur to Kuakata via Bhanga-Barishal and Patuakhali to four lanes.
The proposed EPZ in Patuakhali, Payra thermal power station, Payra deep sea port, Mongla port to improve the communication system with capital Dhaka and the northern part of the country by improving the benefits of the Padma bridge, although more than six years have passed, there has been no significant progress in the implementation.
In this situation, the first amendment proposal of the project to extend the land acquisition deadline to June 2026 is being raised in the National Economic Council Executive Committee (ECNEC) meeting on Wednesday for final approval.
At the same time, it is proposed to increase the cost of the project which was assumed to be Tk. 1867.86 crores to Tk. 5899.66 crores. The two-year land acquisition work will take a total of eight years to complete if final approval is given. At the same time, Tk. 4031.80 crore from government funds will increase the cost of the project by 3.16 times.
Officials of the Planning Commission said that the first meeting of the ongoing interim government is going to be held on Wednesday (September 18). The meeting will be held in the office of the chief adviser of the old parliament building and will be chaired by the chief adviser Dr. Muhammad Yunus.
In the afternoon at the capital's NEC conference center, the government's planning adviser Dr. Wahiduddin Mahmud will present the details in the ECNEC meeting in a press briefing.
According to Planning Commission sources, a total of five projects will be presented for approval in the first ECNEC meeting of the new government. Tk. 5563.68 crore will be invested in new and old projects. Of this, Tk. 5203.21 crore will be spent from the government's own funds. An unspecified Tk. 360.47 crore will be collected from foreign sources.
Apart from this, a special amendment proposal to extend the duration of one more project without increasing the expenditure is being raised in the first meeting of the new government.
The review showed that out of the five projects pending submission to ECNEC, three are proposed amendments to old projects.
The cost of these three projects has increased from the initial estimate of Tk. 3628.39 crore to Tk. 8219.31 crore. As such, the government's expenditure on these three projects is increasing by Tk. 4509.92 crore, which is 126.53 percent more than the initial estimate.
The first amendment proposal of the Bakhrabad-Meghnaghat-Haripur gas transmission pipeline construction project at a cost of Tk. 1570.77 crore is being presented in the ECNEC.
ECNEC approved the project in July 2021 at a cost of Tk. 1,304.62 crore to complete the work by June this year. The cost of the project is increasing by Tk. 266.15 crore or 20.40% due to non-completion of the work on schedule. Along with the increase in cost, the duration of the project is also increasing by two years.
The second amendment proposal of the project titled “Tathya Apa: Empowering Women through Information and Communication Technology to Build Digital Bangladesh” approved in 2017 is coming up in ECNEC. If this proposal is approved, it will take 9 years and 3 months to implement the project approved for five years.
The government will spend 64.26% more money to implement this project, which is known as an important project of the previous Awami League government, which resigned in the face of agitation.
In the second amendment of the project, which was initially assumed to cost Tk. 455.91 crores, the cost is proposed to be Tk. 748.87 crores. Apart from this, a project to drill two appraisal and development wells and two exploration wells for natural gas in Noakhali, Cumilla and Jamalpur is coming up.
Petrobangla's company Bapex will complete the project by June 2026 at a cost of Tk. 588.40 crore.
On the other hand, a project to provide sustainable social services in the Chattogram Hill Tracts area with a cost of Tk. 400 crores is coming up. UNICEF will donate about Tk. 100 crore to this project.