Tk 1.5bn is paid in principal, interest annually to ADB, WB
It will take at least 23 years more to clear the liabilities the country owes to multilateral lenders who gave loans for constructing the Bangabandhu Multipurpose Bridge across the Jamuna River.
An annual payment of Tk 1.50 billion in principal and interest to the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank will have to continue up to 2034 to pay off the debts, reveals an internal audit report of Bangladesh Bridge Authority.
The BBA, which was established a couple of years back to look after the Bangabandhu Bridge and the proposed Padma Multipurpose Bridge, makes the payment to the ADB and the World Bank, the two major lenders of the multi-million dollar Bangabandhu Bridge.
Communications ministry officials fear that it might take even longer to repay the debts if the authority cannot increase income from bridge tolls and pay higher amount of instalments which, they said, the country will have to.
In a letter to Finance Minister AMA Muhith, Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain said the existing rate of 2 percent tolls will be doubled from 2014-15.
Bangladesh Bridge Authority has already drawn plans to raise the income from the bridge by enhancing the toll rates by 40 percent this year, 80 percent in 2016 and 100 percent in 2021.
It said it will not face any problem maintaining the liabilities if the toll plan could be implemented.
Its officials said they are waiting for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to approve the new toll rates.
Commissioned in 1998, Bangabandhu Bridge still stands as the country’s largest infrastructure.
As per the deals struck with the lenders almost two decades ago, Bangladesh will need over Tk 3 billion to maintain the debt service liability to them.
The country spent $962 million (Tk 37.45 billion as per the dollar-taka exchange rate during the 1990s) to construct the rail-road bridge earlier known as Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge.
The ADB and the World Bank provided more than 45 percent of the construction cost. The remaining was funded by Bangladesh government and donors like Japan.
A substantial portion of the total government funding was collected from levies imposed on people.
The 4.8km bridge brought the less developed northern part into the country’s mainstream economy.
Bangabandhu Bridge tolls have remained unchanged for the last 13 years.
Courtesy of Daily Sun
