Bangladesh road transport minister allays pullout fears by foreign collaborators

Minister for Road Transport and Bridges, Obaidul Quader, has said the July 1 Gulshan terror attack that left several foreigners dead, will not dampen the tempo of work on vital projects like the Metrorail and Padma Bridge.

Foreign companies are collaborating in these mega projects.

The minister gave this assurance to journalists at the Secretariat on Monday after a meeting on road management.

He said that work on the Padma Bridge project was progressing on schedule.

“Thirty-six percent of the work (on the bridge) was complete until yesterday. Work on 18 pillars has also been completed,” he said.

The minister expressed anguish at the death of 17 foreigners including seven Japanese nationals involved in the proposed metro rail inspection team in the Gulshan terror attack.

“We are very sad, pained and grief-stricken”, he said.

Emphasizing that the deaths of the Japanese nationals would not hamper work on the Metrorail project, Quader said, "JICA and the Japanese government are very keen to take the project forward.”

The Japanese nationals killed in the attack were supposed to inspect the feasibility of the two routes of the Metrorail project.

Bangladesh’s largest development partner JICA has pumped in  $479 million between April 2014 and March 2015.

The 20km Dhaka Metrorail is being built with JICA funds. It is investing Tk 166 billion in the Tk 220 billion project.

Many had suspected that the deaths of the Japanese nationals involved in the project during the Gulshan attack would sour relations between the two nations.

Allaying these fears, the minister said, “They are committed to ensure participation in Bangladesh’s development”.

He also stressed the government’s firmness to provide greater security cover for foreign nationals involved in Bangladesh’s development.