World Bank is happy that Bangladesh is constructing the country’s largest ever infrastructure project Padma Bridge with its own fund, the bank said yesterday.
In 2011, it had suspended its $1.2bn credit for the $2.9bn Padma Bridge Project on corruption allegation.
“Good news comes after bad history,” said World Bank Chief Economist Kaushik Basu in reply to a question at a press conference in the city. Basu was on a four-day visit from December 12 in Dhaka at the invitation of Bangladesh Bank.
He said the nature of relationship between the World Bank and Bangladesh has now been changed, as the bank opens up new window for Bangladesh by offering low-cost IDA (International Development Association) loan.
“The relationship has become more mature than before, which will help speed up the development process of the country.”
He admitted the fact that the World Bank has also bureaucratic bottleneck in releasing credit. “We are trying to minimise it.”
“Whatever the history, the outcome has been very good as now Bangladesh stands out on its own foot,” said the economist.
He said the financial capability of Bangladesh is very good...no doubt about it. “Look at the statistics....forex reserves which are better than any other country in the world. This backup should fire up the confidence.”
Some 10 years back, the country’s growth and reserves were not visible, but now it is doing very well, he said.
After loan cancellation by the World Bank, the government had decided to build the bridge on self-finance in mid-2013.
On Saturday last, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the construction of main site of the 6.15km long Padma Multipurpose Bridge being built with the country’s own fund of Tk28,000 crore.
The bridge that is expected to be completed by December 2018 will benefit the entire country, particularly the Southwest region. Once completed, the bridge is expected to push up the growth rate of national GDP by 1.2%.
The construction is divided into four broad parts: the main bridge, river training, two link roads and infrastructure.
So far, around 17% work of the main bridge and 13% of the river training have been completed.
Of the two link roads, around 59% of the Jajira approach road and selected bridge-end facilities have been completed. On the Mawa side of the project, 63% construction work has been completed.
