BR closes down three projects
Munima Sultana | Monday, 20 June 2016
The Ministry of Railway has taken a decision to close down three projects as it has got no assurance from development partners about its funding.
The World Bank (WB) and the Indian government under its line of credit (LoC) withdrew support to these projects, sources concerned said.
Of these projects, Export Infrastructure Development project and Technical Assistance for Project Preparation towards Implementation of Export Infrastructure Development were supposed to be financed by the World Bank and project to procure metre gauge coaches was taken under LoC.
Sources said the WB has withdrawn its support to export infrastructure development project and technical support to it long time ago, but India regretted its support as the authority concerned got no response even after floating tenders several times to procure 258 coaches.
"We have made efforts to implement all these projects with the support from other development partners, but we failed. So, the decision was taken to close down the projects," said an official.
However, he said efforts have already been made to take up these projects as new ones.
The World Bank assured Tk 8.5 billion for export infrastructure development project as part of the multi-sectoral project in 2005-06. Due to delay in financing the projects, the contract on these projects could not be awarded after signing, he alleged.
The officials said as the projects could not be implemented even after the passing of more than five years, the BR has taken a move to procure 200 metre gauge and 50 broad gauge coaches and got assurance of funding from the Asian Development Bank.
They said it was necessary for them to close down the projects as those had been included in the Annual Development Programme (ADP) during the last three years without any allocation of funds.