The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on Tuesday approved Tk 6316.71 crore to build houses for another 2.50 lakh homeless families under the Ashrayan project.
The approval was given at the ECNEC meeting with ECNEC Chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
The premier joined the meeting virtually from her official Ganobhaban residence while ministers, state ministers, Planning Commission members and secretaries concerned attended the meeting from the NEC Conference Room in the city's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, the planning minister said the government has approved the 4th revision of the Ashrayan-2 project and extended the tenure of the project up to June 2023.
After the 4th revision, he said that the total project cost is Tk 11,142.87 crore and the whole amount of the project is being spent from the government treasury.
He said, “The RDPP has been restructured by increasing the construction cost of the single house from Tk 200,000 to Tk 2,40,000.”
On the occasion of ‘Mujib Borsho’, he said, according to the Housing Policy for landless and homeless, a total of 250,000 families, including the landless and homeless families will be rehabilitated under the project.
However, the Ecnec approved a total of 10 projects involving Tk 11,211.44 crore on the day.
Besides, the Prime Minister said on Tuesday that metro rail should not be limited to Dhaka only and that it should also be made available in Chattogram.
Other major cities with airports and rail stations will have metro rail too ,she said at the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) meeting.
Planning minister MA Mannan quoting the Prime Minister said the government will build another metro rail in the port city of chattogram.
“The Prime Minister said a plan has been taken for construction of the metro rail from Chattogram airport to the railway station. We will expand it further in other major cities with airports and rail stations,” the planning minister said.
The Planning Minister said, “The metro rail project will be implemented in Chattogram in future. Today's topic was Chattogram. We will encourage it from the Ministry of Planning.”
He said that the three mega projects including the Padma Bridge, Metrorail and Karnafuli tunnels will open to the public this year.
“If these projects are opened, the GDP growth will increase by another 2.50 percent from 2 pc,” he said.
“Of the total project cost, Tk 10,713.25 crore will come from the government and Tk 498.19 crore from the concerned organization's own fund,” he added.
Of the approved 10 projects, three are new while seven others are revised projects.
Meanwhile, the day's ECNEC meeting also approved a Tk 2,490.96 crore project to develop important infrastructure and roads, including airport under the Chattogram City Corporation.
The Chattogram City Corporation under the Local Government Division will implement the project by December 2024.
Out of the total project cost, Tk 1,992.77 crore will come from the government treasury while the rest Tk 498.19 crore will come from the city corporation's own fund.
The project aims to increase various civic facilities of the city corporation.
The other projects approved in the meeting are; ‘Building Logistics and Fleet Maintenance Facilities for Bangladesh Coast Guard (1st revision)’ with an additional cost of Tk 135.94 crore, ‘Upgradation of Kumargaon-Badaghat-Airport Road to National Highway means 4-Lane’ with Tk 727.63 crore.
More projects approved are; ‘Modernization, Digitization and Automation of Bangladesh Television's Central Broadcasting System (Phase 1) (1st revision)’ with an additional cost of Tk 35.68 crore, ‘Mobile Game and Application Skill Development (3rd revision)’ with an additional cost of Tk 48.28 crore.
Other projets approved at the meeting are; Polder 43/1 and 44 Rehabilitation under Barguna District and Prevention of Risky Parts from Erosion of Payra River’ with Tk 751.29 crore, ‘Erosion Prevention of Brahmaputra River in Chilmari and Ulipur Upazilas of Kurigram District” (1st revision) with an additional cost of Tk 145.71 crore, ‘Basic and Applied Research on the Jute (3rd revision)’ with an additional cost of Tk 6.92 crore and ‘BEPZA Economic Zone, Mirsarai-1st Phase (1st revision)’ with an additional cost of Tk 552.32 crore.
