Bangabandhu railway bridge cost overshoots budget by Tk 30 billion

The government has approved a proposal to pump around Tk 30 billion in additional funding into the project to build the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Railway Bridge on the Jamuna River.

The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase cleared a proposal on the extra expenditure with certain conditions in a meeting at the Secretariat in Dhaka on Thursday.

The fund is expected to come as credit from Japan International Cooperation Agency or JICA, according to Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.  

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council or ECNEC will discuss the details of the proposal, he said.

The ECNEC had approved the project at an estimated cost of Tk 97.34 billion in 2016. Now the government is raising the cost to Tk 129.5 billion.

Kamal said the cabinet committee cleared the new proposal before it was placed at the ECNEC meeting, which is a rare practice, in order to ease the process.

The government will now make a fresh Detailed Project Plan or DPP for the project with the increased cost before placing the proposal before the ECNEC, he said.

“The proposal would have gone to the ECNEC first and then come to the cabinet committee had the committee not given the nod today,” the finance minister explained.

“And the prime minister should see it since the cost has gone up much. It will be okay if she approves it,” he said, adding that the ECNEC green light is obligatory for the new proposal.