Padma bridge this term: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday told Parliament that her government will start building Padma bridge even if the World Bank declines to release loan for it.

She reaffirmed the position in response to a starred question from Sirajganj-4 constituency MP Shafiqul Islam during the question-answer session.

The proceedings resumed at 4:30pm with Speaker Abdul Hamid in the chair.

The Prime Minister said: “Currently, efforts are underway to resolve the unsettled issues with the World Bank. It can be expected that it would be possible to begin the construction work of the 6.15-kilometre-long Padma bridge involving US $2.97 billion.”

The World Bank, the main financier of the project, suspended its pledged $1.2 billion funding to the project in September, 2011 raising allegations of conspiracy to exchange bribe.

The global lender decided to revive the loan after the government agreed to its terms and conditions, including a proper probe into the corruption allegations involving some government officials, including former Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain.

The Washington-based global lender now says that it will only consider releasing the credit if it is satisfied with the investigations into the allegations.

In reply to a supplementary query from Pinu Khan MP, Hasina said the Cabinet approved in principle the Sonadia Deep Seaport Authority Act-2012 to pave the way for construction of the country's first deep-sea port in the Bay of Bengal.

“The construction work will start after the fund is secured. In addition, the government has a plan to construct the country's third seaport at Rabnabad channel under Kalaparha upazila of Patuakhali district. The process is underway to appoint a consulting firm to conduct the feasibility study,” she said.

In reply to another query by Noor Afroz Ali MP, the Prime Minister said the process of recruitment of manpower from Bangladesh to Malaysia under government-to-government arrangements already started and that some 1.435 million people completed online registration from the Union Information Service Centers (UISCs).

Hasina said the Human Resources Ministry of Malaysia had a demand of one million workers for gardening work at the initial stages. She said there was employment opportunity for some 100,000 people in Malaysia by this year and some 500,000 people in the next five years.