India, Bangladesh sign MoU for Khulna City development

India has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bangladesh to fund sustainable development of Khulna city.

High Commissioner Harsh Vardhan Shringla, ERD Senior Secretary Kazi Shofiqul Azam, and Khulna City Corporation Mayor Md Moniruzzamman Moni signed the tripartite MoU on Wednesday at the Economic Relations Division in Dhaka.

The total cost of the project is Tk 120.8 million which is being funded by the Indian government under its ‘Sustainable Development Projects in Bangladesh’ programme.

Under the MoU, a project for the construction of a girls’ school in Khalishpur in Khulna would be implemented.

Apart from construction of the school building, the project includes supply of complete furniture for the school, desktop PCs, laptops, photocopying machine, multi media projectors and a 33-seater school bus.

High Commissioner Shringla said at the signing ceremony that India’s links with Khulna are “significant”.

“Not only is it the city in Bangladesh located closest to Kolkata, it has had a long history of close cultural and business ties with the western part of the then Bengal.”

With this MoU and the Khulna-Kolkata rail link which is expected to be inaugurated shortly will re-iterate India’s close ties with Khulna, he said.

The signing was a follow-up of an earlier MoU which was signed by the two governments in April 2013 for the implementation of sustainable development projects in socio-economic sectors of Bangladesh.   

India is undertaking similar sustainable development projects of Tk 219 million in Rajshahi and Tk 242 million in Sylhet.