Officials of Bangladesh and India will sit tomorrow (Wednesday) in Dhaka to review the progress of projects taken up under the three Indian lines of credit (LoCs), officials said on Monday.
The meeting comes against the backdrop of struggling Khulna-Mongla railway project being implemented under the Indian LoCs.
Government officials said an Indian team comprising officials of the External Affairs Ministry and the EXIM Bank of India will sit with the officials of the Economic Relations Division (ERD) and the project implementing agencies on Wednesday.
"We will mainly discuss how to remove the hurdles to the execution of projects under the Indian LoC-I, II and III," said an ERD official.
Presently, Bangladesh is implementing several development projects under the $862 million LoC-I, $2.5 billion LoC-II and $4.5 billion LoC-III.
Of them, the Khulna-Mongla railway line construction project has been struggling since 2010 due to non-professional attitude of the Indian contractor, alleged a Bangladesh Railway (BR) official.
The BR took up the 65km rail line construction project at a cost of Tk 17.21 billion with financing under the Indian LoC-I in December 2010.
However, the BR revised upward the project cost to Tk 38.02 billion in 2015 with a goal to complete it by June 2020.
According to the BR, the Indian contractor has completed less than 50 per cent of the construction work of the railway track as of February 2019.
The work on the railway project was initially delayed because of the delay in obtaining the approval from the Indian government and the Indian lender EXIM Bank, and the land acquisition-related problems, said the BR official, who declined to be named.
The delay in confirmation of the design of railway bridges on the Khulna-Mongla route was also another key reason behind the delay in the construction work, he added.
The BR signed two contracts with two Indian companies -- IRCON and Larsen and Toubro (L&T) -- in 2015 for 42 months each, but both jobs began in 2016.
The BR official said the Indian contractor could not confirm the entire design of the bridges for its failure in conducting load tests of 142 piers.
Earlier, the BR also had faced problems with the design and supervision consultants as the first Indian consultant was replaced by the second one due for alleged improper dealing with the government.
A senior ERD official said tomorrow's meeting will also review the ongoing as well as projects in the pipeline.
The Bangladesh government has undertaken 16 development projects under the LoC-II and the process is underway to take up 16 more projects under the LoC-III.
At the review meeting, ERD's additional secretary will head the Bangladesh side while the Indian side will be led by a joint secretary at the External Affairs Ministry.
Indian Deputy High Commissioner in Bangladesh and the high officials of Indian EXIM Bank will also attend the review meeting.
The Indian team is also expected to visit some Indian LoC-funded projects on July 04 and 05.
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