The government yesterday launched a Tk2,943 crore project to deliver better public services in five city corporations - Narayanganj, Comilla, Rangpur, Gazipur and Chittagong.
The project titled “Inclusive City Governance Project” aims at strengthening administrative capacity of the city governments, improving governance, promoting good environment and quality of life, and creating economic opportunities.
Of the total cost, Tk2,397.69 crore will be provided by Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jaica) and the remaining Tk545,31 crore will come from the public coffers. The project is expected to be completed by June 2020, and in June this year, the government signed the agreement with Jaica.
According to the agreement, the concessional loan carries a mere 0.01% annual interest rate with a 40-year repayment period and a 10-year grace period.
The project is one of the five projects involving $1.18bn to promote socio-economic development in both urban and rural areas, and to provide solid foundation for the BIG-B (Bay of Bengal industrial growth belt) initiative proposed during bilateral talks between the prime ministers of Bangladesh and Japan.
Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal inaugurated the project at the LGED auditorium in the capital in presence of Japanese envoy to Bangladesh Shiro Sadoshima and Jaica Bangladesh Chief Representative Mikio Hataeda.
“Urban administration system should be improved taking into account the rising population in the city,” said Kamal. “The number of city dwellers will grow to 50% by 2035 from the present 30% of the country’s total population.”
The minister urged officials to implement the project in time while ensuring quality. “It is crucial to stop wastage of funds and check corruption when the project is implemented,” he said.
Kamal also requested local representatives to recover illegally occupied public lands.
Urban infrastructure, especially road, drain, water supply and solid waste facilities, are not sufficiently developed and is causing serious traffic congestion, waterlogging, illegal dumping of solid wastes and other urban problems.
Besides, unclear demarcation and responsibility, and overlapping of functions between the central government and city corporation authorities have been observed, which hampered proper implementation of many development projects.
To effectively deal with the problems, the government requested Japan to provide financial support for the project.
