Padma bridge to boost growth, cut poverty, revive Mongla Port: WB

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FHM Humayan Kabir
The proposed Padma Bridge would boost the country's gross domestic product by 1.2 per cent, revive the fortune of Mongla Port and cut poverty in the poorest south-west region, a World Bank assessment report said.
The government plans to build the US$2.0 billion nearly six kilometers road-and-rail bridge over the river Padma at Mawa-Janjira point by 2013 as part of its key election pledge.
The World Bank, which has offered nearly half a billion dollars loan to the ambitious project, conducted a wide-ranging assessment report on the impact of the bridge on the country's economy earlier this month.
The report said on an average 41,000 motor vehicles would cross the Padma Bridge every day, which would accelerate economic growth, particularly the poverty-stricken southwestern Khulna and Barisal divisions, the World Bank said.
The bridge would boost the country's GDP by 1.2 per cent and that of the two divisions --- home to quarter of the country's population --- by at least 2.3 per cent, the report said.
The districts in the south-west are ranked the lowest in the country's poverty map, surpassing even the Monga-affected northern districts, as they lack direct communication to the capital Dhaka.
The proposed bridge would link the region to the Asian Highway (AH), swelling international trade and business, the Bank said, adding it would also revive the ailing Mongla sea-port.
"The country's second international sea-port at Mongla is now operating only at its 20 per cent capacity. As the jute shipment has declined, the use of the port has dropped markedly. The Padma Bridge would help to make the port vibrant," it said.
The bank's report said pace of poverty alleviation in the southwestern districts where level of hunger is five per cent higher than national average, would speed up due to the bridge.
The Washington-based global lender presented the assessment report to the government at a meeting on Thursday. WB officials and top bureaucrats from 26 ministries were present.
The World Bank acting country chief Tahseen Sayed said it would prepare a "South-west development programme" within a year in an effort to garner maximum benefits from the country's largest bridge.
The Bank report said natural disasters and the impact of the climate change are the major challenges for the southwestern regional economy.
An absence of the basic link of the Padma Bridge and low density of other roads and transportation system also impede growth in the region.
Development of multi-modal transport system, revival of Mongla port and establishment of free export zones, a rail link with other regions, improvement of power supply, exploiting farm and non-farm growth potentials, promoting tourism are imperative for the development of the southwestern zones, it said.
"World Bank officials have told us that they would prepare an integrated development plan for the southwestern zones," ERD additional secretary Mohammad Mejbahuddin told the FE.
The government would also take projects and programmes jointly with the bank to speed up economic growth in the impoverished Khulna and Barisal divisions, Mejbahuddin said.
He said the government would execute the development work simultaneously with the construction of the Padma Bridge.