Japan to give Tk11,000cr for two projects

Tokyo will provide Dhaka with 16.58 billion Japanese yen or Tk11,306 crore, for two projects under Japan's 43 ODA (official development assistance) loan package.

Of that, 133,399 million yen or around Tk9,093 crore, will go to the Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit Development Project (Line-5 Northern Route) and 34,462 million yen to the Southern Chattogram Regional Development project.

Officials at the Economic Relations Department (ERD) said funding for the two projects was finalised at a virtual meeting on 31 May.

Representatives from their headquarters and the Dhaka office of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) attended the meeting.

Md Shahriar Kader Siddiky, additional secretary at the Economic Relations Division (ERD), said they are preparing to sign the loan agreement with Jica.

"The deal could be signed in June but the date is yet to be set," he added.

The Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit Development Project (Line-5: Northern Route), will build out a 20km metro rail line. There will be a 6.5km elevated metro rail from Hemayetpur to Aminbazar and a 13.5km underground metro rail from Aminbazar to Bhatara.

In September 2019, the project received government approval.

The project will cost a total of Tk41,238 crore, of which Tk29,117 crore will come from Jica.

In 2020, Jica already provided 55,696 million Japanese yen (Tk4,528 crore) for the project. Now, the development agency is providing the second tranche of financing.

According to the implementing agency, Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL), a feasibility study and basic design have been completed for launching the metro rail from Hemayetpur to Bhatara by 2028.

Work on various surveys, detailed design, and land acquisition is now ongoing. The detailed design is 51.60% completed, it added.

Land acquisition is 60% completed for the first east-west MRT corridor of Dhaka being constructed on this route.

Md Aftab Hossain Khan, project director of the Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit Development Project (Line-5): Northern Route said, "It will take another year to start construction on the route. The loan agreement with Jica will be signed for the second time next June."

"The agreement signed in August 2020 for the first phase of the project is being spent now," he added.

The standard of living for residents of Chattogram, Cox's Bazar and Bandarban districts, will also improve with the infrastructure development under the Southern Chattogram Regional Development project, the second project besides Dhaka's metrorail, partly funded by Jica.