Cabinet okays draft BD Bridge Authority Act

The cabinet approved Monday the draft Bangladesh Bridge Authority Act-2014 updating the existing law for construction, operation and maintenance of the bridges with 1500-metre length or more.

"There will be a board to run the authority. The communications minister will be the chairman of the board. The executive director (ED) will lead it (board)," cabinet secretary Mohammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told the media after the regular weekly cabinet meeting at the conference room of the Cabinet Division at the Bangladesh Secretariat on the day.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina presided over the meeting.

The cabinet secretary said the proposed law has been prepared in Bangla incorporating all necessary amendments.  

He said the existing law became outdated as the Supreme Court annulled the same promulgated by two military rulers.

He said the Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge Authority Ordinance was promulgated in 1985 and it took shape as the Bangladesh Bridge Authority Act in 2009 following a number of amendments over the years.

He said the cabinet also constituted a committee comprising three senior secretaries to the government to ascertain the areas of activities of the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) and the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) so far as road construction is concerned.

Secretaries to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), LGED and RHD were made members of the committee.