The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will offer $125 million in loans to improve services and governance of the municipalities to make them more livable and attractive.
Secretary of Economic Relations Division (ERD) Mohammad Mejbahuddin, and Country Director for ADB in Bangladesh Kazuhiko Higuchi Wednesday signed a loan agreement at ERD in Dhaka.
The government has undertaken $236 million 3rd Urban Governance and Infrastructure Improvement Sector Project based on the success and lessons from previous projects that focused on improvements in infrastructure, governance and services at the municipalities.
The Manila lender said the new project will provide financial assistance to 30 municipalities including 20 district headquarters across the country, home to nearly 2.2 million population.
Under the project, new roads, drainage and sanitation, piped water supplies, and solid waste collection and disposal systems will be built. It will also strengthen the ability of municipalities to carry out urban planning, financial management, and service delivery.
Some of the expected benefits will include reduced travel time and cost savings from better roads, health improvements from piped water and solid waste collection, and more citizen participation-including by women and poor and marginalised groups-in governance and the provision of basic services.
Bangladesh's many municipalities suffer from weak oversight and are struggling to provide citizens basic services. In response, the ADB has been providing support for improved services under an urban governance improvement action program.
In addition to ADB's $125 million loan, OPEC Fund for International Development will provide $40 million as a co-financer and the government $71 million funds for the municipality development project.
The project is expected to end in 2020. The Local Government Engineering Department and Department of Public Health Engineering under the Local Government Division will implement the project.
Participating municipalities will prepare their development plans and implement sub-projects in consultation with a broad-based citizen forum known as town level coordination committee.
"Bangladesh needs to develop livable district towns with well-managed quality infrastructure to reduce overcrowding in big cities," said ADB country director Mr. Higuchi.
