India disburses full $200m grant it had pledged for Padma Bridge

India has disbursed the entire $200 million grant it had pledged for the Padma Bridge project under a $1 billion loan agreement signed with Bangladesh. An Economic Relations Division official told bdnews24.com that the country had disbursed $50 million in the last tranche of the grant in late June. “The entire grant is being utilised in the Padma Bridge project. That’s why the money has been parked in the Bangladesh Bank’s Forex Reserves and Treasury Management Department.” The Department’s General Manager Kazi Sayedur Rahman told the online news agency “We’ve received the entire $200 million of the grant amount. Now we’ll spend it in accordance with government’s priority.” Former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh had announced the $1 billion line of credit during his Dhaka visit four years ago. After the World Bank had pulled out of the Padma Bridge financing, the government announced that it would implement the country’s largest infrastructure project involving $3 billion with its own funds. China’s Major Bridge Engineering Company has been awarded the construction works of the six-kilometre bridge on the River Padma. The government plans to build by 2018 the bridge that will connect the southern districts with Dhaka.