The ministry of communication (MoC) has sought a special allocation for its seven big projects like the Padma Bridge from the next fiscal to tide over the difficulty with distribution of funds for ongoing projects.
The ministry finds it hard to implement its priority projects with the Tk 42.87 billion allocated in the current fiscal year 2014-15 for the Road Division. The fund has been allocated under the Middle Term Budgetary Framework (MTBF) to implement more than 125 projects including seven big ones.
The Road Division in a letter to the ministry of finance (MoF) on June 18 raised the issue and requested the MoF to drop the big projects like the Padma bridge from the MTBF basket from the next fiscal.
It made the request on the ground that more than 50 per cent of the allocation made under the MTBF would be spent for the seven bug projects and the requirement of funds for them would increase in the next couple of years.
In the next FY (2015-16), the big projects will spend more than 70 per cent straight from the MTBF basket, followed by 62 per cent in the FY 2016-17 and 45 per cent in the FY 2017-18. For those fiscal years Tk 53.46 billion, Tk 59.34 billion and Tk 65.28 billion respectively have been earmarked under the MTBF.
"Either the ceiling of the MTBF allocation for our division will have to be increased or special allocation will have to be made for the big projects from next fiscal year," said an official.
Apart from the Padma bridge, the other big projects are Mass Rapid Transit Development or MRT line-6 Project, construction of three bridges on Dhaka-Chittagong highway project, Dhaka-Chittagong, Dhaka-Mymensingh and Joydevpur-Chandra-Tangail four-lane projects, eastern bridge improvement project and greater Dhaka sustainable urban transport or Dhaka BRT project.
The aggregate cost of all these projects, being implemented under the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) and Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA), has been fixed at Tk 417.71 billion, which the MoF has to allot in phases over the next couple of years.
Of the total allocation under the MTBF for the FY 2014-15, Tk 22.39 billion has been allocated for the seven big projects while the remaining Tk 20.50 billion was being considered for more than 120 other projects.
"It will not be possible to keep any fund for many projects, when we have to reset our priority to consider the directives for allotting funds for those projects, which are to be implemented in the current fiscal year, and those, the implementation of which will cost less than Tk 500 million," the official told the FE preferring not to be named
The yearly allocation for the Road Division always mismatches the demand placed by the agencies concerned. The RHD claims they place the minimum demand for funds against their projects but get allocations with a further cut in it.
Due to the government's priority to implementing the big projects like MRT, the yearly budget allocation should not be curtailed, sources said.
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