UNB
The Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) on Tuesday approved a Tk 2204-crore project to expand and moderniseTeletalk so that it can provide 4G services even in rural areas at a cheaper rate.
The approval came from the weekly Ecnec meeting chaired by its chairperson Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The PM joined the virtual meeting from her official residence, while other Ecnec members attended it from the NEC conference room.
"Today's meeting approved a total of 10 projects with an overall estimated cost of Tk 7,985.51 crore (only additional cost of a revised project counted here). Of these, nine are new and the remaining one is a revised project," said Planning Minister MA Mannan while briefing reporters after the meeting.
Of the total cost, Tk 6,660.29 crore will be borne from the national exchequer, while Tk 173.09 crore from the own funds of the organisations concerned and the remaining Tk 1,188.13 crore will come as foreign loans, he said.
In terms of cost, three biggest projects are "Expansion of Teletalk network in rural areas and modernization of its network to deliver 5G services" project involving an estimated cost of Tk 2,204.39 crore; "Construction of Madarganj 100 Megawatt Solar Power Plant at Solar Park in Jamalpur" with Tk 1511.79 crore; and "Development of Important Roads in KeraniganjUpaizla, Dhaka", with Tk 1,090 crore.
According to the factsheet of the Planning Commission, the Teletalk project will be implemented across the country by November 2023.
The objectives of the project are to improve the quality of its network for providing 4G technology based modern telecommunication services to rural people at cheaper rates, and modernise the necessary core transmission network as part of the prior preparation to provide 5G technology-based mobile services in Bangladesh within 2021-2023 in line with the government's announcement.
