The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) on Tuesday approved 10 projects, including one to excavate and re-excavate five canals in the capital to resolve the water-logging problem, involving around Tk 3,416 crore.
The approval came from an Ecnec meeting held at the NEC conference room in the city with Ecnec Chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
“Today, a total of 10 projects were approved with an estimated cost of Tk 3,415.86 crore. Of the total cost, Tk 3,400.93 crore will come from the government fund while the rest Tk 14.93 crore from the organisations’ own fund,” said Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal while briefing reporters after the meeting.
Of the approved 10 projects, nine are new while one is revised one.
The project titled ‘Land acquisition, excavation and re-excavation of Hazaribagh, Baishteki, Kurmitola, Manda and Begunbari Canals’ will be implemented from December 2018 to December 2019, the minister said.
Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) will implement the project at an estimated cost of Tk 607.16 crore. The entire project cost will be borne from the state coffer, he said.
Mustafa Kamal said the main objective of the project is to remove water-logging keeping the water flow of the canals normal during the rainy season and thus ensure a healthy and environment-friendly living condition for the city dwellers.
The main activities of the project include acquisition of 30.562 acres of land for the five canals, compensation to the affected people, construction of 0.15-km road-crossing culverts, 13.50 km canal excavation and erection of some 2200 pillars.
Of the 30.562 acres of land, 4.355 acres will be acquired for the Hazaribagh canal while 6.385 acres for Baishteki and Journalists’ Colony canal, 4.613 acres for Kurmitola canal, 1.905 acres for Begunbari canal and 13.304 acres for the Manda canal.
The Ecnec meeting approved another project titled ‘Establishment of Kishore-Kishori Club’ to set up some 4,883 adolescent clubs across the country for enabling the marginalised adolescents to resist child marriage and gender-based violence, said the Planning Minister said.
The Department of Women Affairs under the Women and Children Affairs Ministry will implement the project by December 2020 with an estimated cost of Tk 551.56 crore.
The adolescent clubs will be set up in 4,553 unions and 330 municipalities under 64 districts.
The main objective of the project is to enable the marginalised adolescents to resist child marriage and gender-based violence, enhance awareness about sexual and reproductive health and rights, and bring positive change in society by cementing ties among male adolescents and female adolescents (Kishore-Kishori) through creative and cultural activities.
The project works include setting up of 4,883 adolescent clubs, arranging training, workshop and foreign trips, procuring sports items, vehicles, office instruments and furniture, and providing salary of employees.
Besides, the Ecnec meeting approved a project for widening the Elenga-Jamalpur national highway with Tk 489.82 crore. The Roads and Highways Department will implement the project to upgrade some 77.60 km of the highway into a four-lane one by June 2020.
This four-lane highway will stretch from Elenga to Sarishabari viaKalihati, Ghatail, Madhupur, Gopalpur, Dhanbari and Jamalpur Sadar.
The seven other projects approved at the meeting are ‘Sheikh Sayera Khatun Medical College, Medical College Hospital and Nursing College, Gopalganj (2nd revised) Project’ (involving Tk 705.04 crore), ‘Joyeta Tower Construction’ (Tk 154.25 crore), ‘Strengthening Publicity Programme for the Development of Rural Communities’ (Tk 59.63 crore), ‘Replacing Ashuganj 132 KV AIS Substation with 132 KV new GIS Project’ (Tk 356.99 crore), ‘Strengthening Bangladesh Institute of Management (BIM) in Dhaka’ (Tk 147.86 crore), ‘Canal Re-excavation Works for Irrigation at the Coastal Polders in Barguna District’ (Tk 61.33 crore), ‘Widening and Strengthening Mawna-Phulbaria-Kaliakoir-Dhamrai-Nabinagar (Dhulibhita) Highway Project’ (Tk 282.22 crore).
