Hi-Tech Park still a far cry

Hi-Tech Park, to promote country`s information communication technology, is still a far cry as there has been no development in its infrastructure despite initiation of the project 15 years ago.
The project, taken in 1999, was designed to be developed by 2007 under public private partnership (PPP), but lack of attention from concerned authority and legal complexities with KTPC Consortium delayed the much anticipated project, sources said.
So far the government completed land acquisition and constructed a boundary with an office building and entrance road for the 232-acre project.
In the beginning of the month, the telecommunication ministry donated 100 more acres of land for the project. Besides, the cost of the project was revised to Tk10.0 billion from earlier Tk8.0 billion.
World Bank is providing around Tk1.74 billion for the Hi-Tech Park project in Kaliakair, Gazipur. The financial support will be used only for basic development of the project. The entire internal infrastructure will be developed under PPP, said a high official of the project.
The aim of the park is to make it a specialised economic zone (SEZ) to attract foreign and local investors where they could utilise the vast potential of young educated and technically skilled workforce.