The Indian government has disbursed a total of USD 237 million, out of USD 800 million of the Indian line of Credit (LoC) and USD 200 million- grant, till date, according to Economic Relations Division (ERD) sources. The sources said the Indian government had given USD 87.06 million as credit till June 30 and the rest of USD 150-million grant would be disbursed by July 11. The Indian government included three more projects under the LoC. The number of projects under the LoC has increased to 17 after the inclusion of three projects—- establishment of an Inland Container River Port at Ashuganj (USD 31.32 million), rehabilitation of Khulna-Shahbazpur section of Bangladesh Railway (USD 54.41 million), replacement and modernisation of signalling and interlocking system of three stations on the Ashuganj-Akhaura section in the east zone of Bangladesh Railway (USD 3.63 million).
ERD joint secretary Ashif-uz-Zaman told The Independent that there was no major obstacle to implement the projects and it is only a matter of time to complete the projects. He also said most of the project work would be done within the next one year as per schedule.
On Thursday, Indian high commissioner Pankaj Saran handed over the third instalment of USD 50 million to Bangladesh as part of its commitment of USD 200-million grant, out of its USD 1 billion Line of Credit (LoC) to Bangladesh.
With the third instalment, India has provided USD 150 million to Bangladesh, which will be utilised for the PMB project. During his visit last year, the then Indian finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee, had said that India would provide USD 1 billion as LoC under an agreement signed earlier for implementing Bangladesh’s priority projects.
Saran said, “We have now completed the disbursement of USD 150 million as part of the USD 200-million grant to Bangladesh government.”
-With The Independent input
