Fast move to buy vehicles under 2nd Indian LoC

A faster move is on to buy 500 trucks, several hundred double-decker and articulated buses and road-maintenance equipment worth 175 million US dollars under a second Indian line of credit (LoC) not yet finalised.
Officials said the Road Transport and Highways Division has prepared the plan to procure these vehicles and equipment for its different departments under three projects taken up under the first LoC guidelines.
Under the second LoC, they said, 500-truck-procurement project and double-decker and articulated bus procurement project of Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) have been enlisted as candidate projects.
Besides, equipment-procurement project of the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has been enlisted to increase the RHD capacity of construction and maintenance work.
The Planning Commission (PC) has already approved in principle the pre-development project proposal (PDPP) in this respect. Of the total project costs, $128 million has been shown as project aid and is to be sought from the 2nd LOC.
Sources said the 500-truck procurement project was enlisted under the first LoC, but it was rejected later due to lack of funds.
They said the division under the ministry of road transport and bridges also listed a road development project to improve Ashuganj River Port-Dharkhar Akhaura Land Port highway as grant. The proposal to develop the 50 km road as grant was sent to the Indian High Commission through the ministry of foreign affairs.
The Ashuganj River Port-Dharkhar Akhaura Land Port road was the road that was severely damaged for carrying heavy electric poles by the Indian government to build Palatana Power Plant in the landlocked north-eastern state of Tripura.
RHD officials, however, said they have proposed building another connecting road towards the land ports under the 2nd LoC which will also link it with Dhaka and Chittagong.
India and Bangladesh signed the first $1.0 billion line of credit during the Bangladesh Prime Minister's visit to the neighbouring country in 2010. The then Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, however, announced its conversion into $200 million, out of the original $1.0 billion credit line, as grant, giving full authority to Bangladesh to spend it in any area.
The government later decided to use the $ 200 million fund for the Padma Multipurpose Bridge project.
In the first week of April, India offered a fresh LoC worth US$ 1.0 billion during the visit of Indian external affairs secretary Sujata Mehta.
However, only seven out of 15 projects under the first LoC have been completed. It is learnt that Bangladesh has reportedly received only $ 173.58 million out of the $800 million of the first LoC. From $ 200 million grant, the Padma bridge project has received $ 175 million.
Earlier, BRTC bought 290 buses from Ashok Leyland, 100 air-conditioned buses and 50 articulated buses under the first Indian LoC.
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