A mega project involving Tk 4,025.62 crore has been approved at a meeting in the Ecnec on Tuesday for construction and development works of road infrastructure and drainage system in the newly included 18 DNCC wards.
Under the development project, 182.78 kilometer (km) roads will be constructed in the concerned areas while 233.97 km drainage line will also be developed under this project, said a sources, adding that a total of 12,267 LED lights will also be installed.
Compensation will be given for acquisition of 69.48 acres of land and installation.
The approval came from the 2nd Ecnec meeting of the current fiscal year, held with Ecnec Chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
In the meeting, a total of eight projects involving Tk 10,102 crore were approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) of the new fiscal year (2020-21) held at the NEC Conference Room in the city's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area on Tuesday.
The Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Planning Minister MA Mannan joined the meeting from Ganobhaban through video conference where some other ministers and state ministers also attended the meeting with Planning Commission members and secretaries concerned in attendance.
Through the project titled 'Construction and Development of Road Infrastructure and Drainage System in 16 Newly Included Roads of Dhaka North City Corporation' (Phase-I)’ the newly incorporated 18 wards of DNCC will be given new looks spending around Tk 4,026 crore in the days to come, the Planning Minister MA Mannan said.
“Today (Tuesday), we placed eight projects of five ministries at the meeting and all the projects got approval,” he said at a virtual press briefing after the Ecnec meeting.
“The total cost of the projects is Tk 10,102.03 crore. Among them, Tk 10,068.90 crore will be borne from the government’s fund, while the remaining Tk 33.13 crore from the funds of the organisations concerned,” the minister said.
He said that the eight projects include two each from the Local Government Division, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Land, one each from the Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs Ministry and the Power Division.
He said the government will provide agricultural machinery to farmers at 70 percent and 50 percent subsidised prices in haor and coastal areas respectively.
He said the Department of Agricultural Extension will implement the project by December 2025.
While endorsing the project, the Prime Minister directed the authorities concerned to examine the quality of the locally produced agricultural machines saying that the government will promote local ones if these are of good quality, Mannan said.
The main activities of the project include procurement and distribution of 51,300 machines of different technology (combined harvester, rice transplanter, power thresher dryer, power weeder, power sprayer, potato digger, maize sheller) as well as providing trainings to rural mechanics, agriculture officers, farmers and entrepreneurs.
The major objectives of the project include preventing 10-15 percent of crop from wastage, and saving time and money in cultivation by enhancing the supply and use of modern agricultural machines; reducing agricultural production costs and boosting productivity and thus alleviating poverty.
Ecnec also approved another project titled ‘Increasing Production of Oil-Bearing Crops Project’ involving Tk 278.26 crore under the Agriculture Ministry aiming to meet the local demand of edible oil and reduce the import costs in this regard.