BEZA seeks Tk 65.62b for land acquisition

The Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) under the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has sought an allocation of Tk 65.62 billion (6,562 crore) for acquisition of land for the proposed Economic Zones (EZs) across the country.
The fund is badly needed for development of the proposed EZs. Different development activities of the zones will be hampered severely, if the authorities do not get the required allocations, a senior official of the BEZA told the FE on Friday.  
He said the government had made arrangement to set up 25 EZs in the country. Development project proformas (DPPs) are being prepared for the selected EZs for land acquisition. The BEZA has submitted a proposal on expenditure to the ministry of finance (MoF) for the fiscal years (FYs) 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 for land acquisition, according to the draft DPPs.
The DPPs will be sent to the authority concerned for approval on their completion, he added.  
About Tk 24.73 billion will be needed for acquisition of 9,558.36 acres of lands to build four EZs in different parts of the country for the FY 2015-16. The sites are: Sreepur, Gazipur (proposed for Japanese investors), Anowara-2 in Chittagong, Jamalpur and Mirsarai in Chittagong.
About Tk 16.10 billion will be needed for acquisition of 10,002 acres of lands to build four EZs in Anowara in Chittagong, Mirarsarai in Chittagong, Sirajganj and Panchagarh for the FY 2016-17.
In the FY 2017-18, about Tk 25.77 billion will be needed for acquisition of 1,290.20 acres of lands to build three proposed EZs in Barisal, Manikganj and Narsingdi.
About 20,851.31 acres of land will be acquired in the next three FYs. Of the land, 6,161 acres are state-owned and 14,689 acres are in the private sector. As a result, the proposed fund for the FYs mentioned is urgent and necessary, an official of the BEZA said.    
The Governing Board (GB) of the BEZA under PMO gave approval to develop 17 more EZs last month, officials said despite poor execution of the existing zones, they said.
"It is taking time to get necessary fund for developing activities of the proposed EZs. If the MoF could extend its cooperation further for allocation of the fund sought," BEZA executive chairman Paban Chowdhury told the FE on Friday.
The government has given final approval of Tk 3.35 billion loan for the BEZA from Bangladesh Infrastructure Finance Fund Ltd (BIFFL) to acquire land for setting up a proposed EZ at Sherpur in Moulvibazar, he said.
"A good number of proposed EZs are earnestly being implemented in the country. The government is getting significant response from domestic and foreign investors to EZ development plans," the BEZA chairman said.
He expressed the hope that remarkable progress would be visible in establishing EZs in the current year. The government must set up all the zones to attract both foreign and domestic investments, he said.
The overall activities of the BEZA are going at a slow pace and, especially, the rate of implementation of its different projects is poor for lack of adequate funds. Fund constraint for land acquisition is the major obstacle to setting up the EZs in various parts of the country, sources concerned said.
Earlier, five sites had been selected to establish EZs by the GB, which are being developed. The sites are Mirsarai in Chittagong, Gohira in Anwara of Chittagong, Sirajganj, Sherpur in Moulvibazar and Mongla seaport area in Bagerhat. The area of lands of the zones is 9951.07 acres.
The government established the BEZA to regulate and oversee the new zones under the Economic Zones Act 2010. The BEZA started working on establishing economic zones in 2012 in different areas of the country having potential to contribute to the national economy.
    [email protected]