JICA over with Padma bridge project

The Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) says it has no intention to resume funding for the $ 2.9 billion rail-road bridge on the mighty Padma.

JICA president Akihiko Tanaka said that the decision was final and there was no possibility of reversing it.

That puts the lid on media speculation about JICA's possibility of reconsidering its decision if the Bangladesh government approached it.

That had been triggered off when the JICA South Asia director general Masatak Nakahara had apparently said that the Japanese lender was open to consider resumption of funding the Padma bridge project if formally approached by the Bangladesh government.

But JICA chief Tanaka says that's not on.

"The previous plan to provide soft loan to the Bangladesh project has been scrapped and no longer valid. We are no longer attached to the project," Tanaka told bdnews24.com during his ongoing India visit." The Bangladesh government is apparently keen to do it of its own without any financial aid from external agency."

The JICA had committed $400 million to the $2.9billion project linking the south-west to northern and eastern regions of Bangladesh.

But it withdrew from the project after the Asian Development Bank (ADB) walked out of it, when Bangladesh withdrew its funding request to the World Bank following a long stand-off over graft allegations in awarding the project's consultancy to the Canadian company SNC-Lavalin.

“As a co-financier, we are unable to continue our commitment under the current framework. Our policy requires the highest standard of ethics,” said a JICA Bangladesh office media release in February.

The JICA has also threatened to pull out of the Kolkata Metro expansion project -- but for a different reason.

It had committed a soft loan funding worth Rs 2,253 crore for the Rs. 4,874 crore Kolkata metro’s 14.67 km East-West corridor plan, connecting Salt Lake to Howrah.

But its pull out threat was because it was upset with the "inordinate delay on the part of implementing agencies to claim funds sanctioned by it".

The JICA has set a deadline for the government to resolve funding issues by June 30. It will withdraw funding if the government fails to do so.

Started in 2008, the project is just 30% complete.

"JICA had written to us last month threatening to pull out. Not only are they miffed at the delay in claiming the loan but are unhappy over the proposed change in alignment of the project,” HK Sharma, managing director, Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Limited had said recently.