Tk 14.37b project soon for 50 municipalities

The government is set to take up a Tk 14.37 billion project aiming to streamline service delivery system, especially construction of roads, surface drains and waste management in 50 municipalities, officials said.
The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) will be proposed funding the project which will also facilitate providing streetlights, improvement of sanitation system and construction of bus and truck terminals, community centres, multipurpose office buildings, water supply and water treatment plants, kitchen markets, children parks and slaughterhouses.
Besides, the project aims to build compost plants for solid waste management system of the municipalities across the country.
The main objectives of the project are to improve municipal services and environment in urban areas and expand the opportunities for income generation activities in urban areas to boost revenues of the local bodies.
The project is also aimed at extending business communication, transport and improving living conditions of urban people as well as the connectivity of urban centres with the national and regional communication networks.
The Bangladesh Municipal Development Fund (BMDF), a state-owned company under the Bank and Financial Institutions Division of the Ministry of Finance (MoF), is the executing agency and the municipal authorities concerned will be the executing body of the project.
A senior official of the MoF said the BMDF has so far implemented 592 subprojects in 114 urban local bodies including seven city corporations.
The implementation cost of the subprojects was US$ 106 million, he said, adding that the BMDF is now receiving enormous attention from different urban local bodies for their infrastructure development for both income and non-income generating activities.
To improve the urban living conditions, the official said, the BMDF has already undertaken projects on municipal governance and services project funded by the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA).
"The project will help build physical infrastructure in all the municipalities and city corporations of the country," said another official of the ministry.
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