The Local Government Division has requested the finance ministry to provide a grant of Tk9.46 billion to implement the Dhaka Metropolitan Emergency Water Supply Project, sources said.
To this effect, the division has recently sought necessary approval regarding the issue as the cost of the project has already been fixed, they added.
Dhaka WASA proposed the project titled "Dhaka City Emergency Water Supply Project" (DCEWSP) for the period of January 2025 to June 2029, for installing deep tube wells aiming to keep the water supply stable in the areas of two Dhaka city corporations.
As per directive of the Planning Commission, by reducing Tk290 million from the estimated cost mentioned in Development Project Proposal (DPP), the project cost has been fixed at Tk10.52 billion.
Of the amount, Tk1.05 billion will come from WASA while the rest Tk 9.46 billion has been sought as grant.
But the Finance Division has only given consent to finance the project, of which some Tk 6.31 billion will be provided as loan and some 4.20 billion will be given as Government of Bangladesh (GoB)'s grant.
Dhaka WASA is a commercial service organisation which operates its capital and operating expenditure through the achieved earnings set tariff by the government.
It is very difficult to pay the project spending through GoB loan at this moment.
The project is a very important one for Dhaka WASA which supplies required water in the selected areas during a crisis within shortest possible time.
The division mentioned that previously similar projects were implemented fully by using government grants.
In continuation of this, the division has requested the amount as grant instead of loan.
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