Muhith sees quick end to Padma Bridge row

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FE Report Finance minister AMA Muhith said Sunday the standoff over the Padma Bridge funding will be over soon as the government would ask the World Bank to withdraw its suspension of US$1.2 credit line for the project. Muhith said the prime minister's economic advisor and himself would write separate letters to the development lender in an effort to overturn its recent decision to halt credit for the road-cum-rail bridge. "I think it'll be resolved. I've always said this is temporary. We've almost reached a solution," the minister told reporters at his Secretariat office, according to the private wire services UNB and Bdnews24.com. The minister said the government would also issue a statement on the issue this week, clarifying its position, in the wake of World Bank allegations that the tender process of the $3.0 billion Bridge was tainted with graft. "Prime minister Sheikh Hasina's advisor Moshiur Rahman has been told to prepare a letter. He'll send it to her after finishing it. I'll send it to the World Bank vice-president after it comes to me," he said. The minister said he himself would a separate letter to the World Bank about the matter. His remarks come days after the World Bank said it would not "proceed' with the Padma Bridge funding after it was alleged that the bidding process for the project was influenced by a firm owned by the communications minister. Communications minister Syed Abul Hossain has rubbished the claim. Meanwhile, the finance minister said transit fees for Indian ships and other transports using Bangladeshi waterways, roads, railways and ports for carrying merchandise to other parts of India will be fixed by March, 2012. "I hope the detail modalities of fees for transit traffic under a transit deal between Bangladesh and India will be finalised by next March," Muhith told reporters. He claimed that there was a national consensus on the transit deal with New Delhi. "The main opposition BNP has changed its earlier stand on the transit issue. Providing transit facility to India has now got a consensus in the national perspective," he added. The finance minister said the unutilised and excess capacities of the Chittagong and the Mongla ports could easily be used by the Indian traders under a transit deal. Muhith, however, said that he was concerned over the possible benefit the country would get by extending transit facilities to India. "We have not yet decided on the entirety of transit as the report of the Core Committee on Transit issue has not yet been submitted to us," Muhith said. The finance minister said the unresolved issue on the planned Indo-Bangla Teesta water sharing deal will be settled by next March. The issue will be discussed with the Indian officials by end of this month when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will visit the Angorpota enclave. Dhaka and New Delhi had planned to sign a water sharing deal on the Teesta river during Indian Prime Mininster Manmohan Singh's visit to Bangladesh early last month. But India pulled out from signing the accord at the last moment following objections by the chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee.