Cabinet body also okays project to set up 5 medical colleges
The government has decided to implement nine projects including construction of two rail bridges on the river Jamuna under public private partnership (PPP) initiative.
Cabinet committee on economic affairs at a meeting with Finance Minister AMA Muhith in the chair yesterday approved proposals of the projects.
The other projects approved in the meeting are: construction of five medical colleges and hospitals; establishing two inland container depots at Gazipur and Narayanganj under the PPP initiative.
The hospitals will be set up on railway lands at Kamalapur in Dhaka, Chittagong, Pakshey in Pabna, Khulna and Nilphamari at a cost of $923 million, the railways ministry told the meeting.
There will be 50 seats for students, 250 beds for patients and a nursing institute in each medical college and hospital.
These hospitals will be built on the standard of reputable hospitals, like Apollo and United hospitals.
According to a proposal of the ministry, two rail bridges on the river Jamuna will make goods transport easier and facilitate transit to neighbouring countries.
One of the bridges, a dual-gauge double track with a length of 4.8 kilometres, would be constructed parallel to the existing Bangabandhu Jamuna Bridge at a cost of $1 billion.
The other bridge, with a length of about 11 km including the approach link, will be constructed between Fulchhari and Bahadurabad ghat at a cost of $2 billion.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Muhith said one of the main reasons behind crack formation on the Bangabandhu Jamuna Bridge was the movement of trains overloaded with passengers and goods.
The government could construct the rail bridge at a minimum cost as the river training work had already been done there, he added.
A feasibility study is also going on in this regard with the assistance of the Asian Development Bank, the ministry officials told the meeting.
The ministry said at present goods or passenger trains can move at a highest speed of 20 km per hour on the Bangabandhu Bridge. There is restriction on movement of trains on the bridge if they are overloaded.
The proposal of the ministry says transport of goods will increase if a separate railway bridge is constructed.
The proposed bridge could be used in case of closure of the Bangabandhu Bridge due to natural disaster or any other causes.
A railways ministry official said a meeting between India and Bangladesh agreed that a separate rail bridge was necessary for transport of Indian containerised cargo across the Jamuna.
If the bridge was constructed, goods transport throughout the country would become easier and it would also increase economic growth, the ministry said.
The bridge would also shorten the road length for transport of Indian goods to Chittagong Port, Dhaka, Akhaura-Agartola, Shahbazpur-Karimganj through Birol-Radhikapur and Chilahati-Haldibari, it added.
After the cabinet committee meeting on economic affairs, a meeting of the purchase committee was held with the finance minister in the chair.
The meeting gave its approval to a proposal for purchasing 60,625 electric poles which will be installed by December.
During the BNP-led four-party alliance government, huge numbers of electric poles were erected across the country, though power connections could not be installed through them.
When Muhith’s attention was drawn to this issue, he said they had set up electric lines first and then given approval for purchasing the electric poles.
-With The Daily Star input
