The approval came at the Ecnec weekly meeting held at the NEC conference room with EcnecChairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
“Today, we placed 10 project proposals at the meeting from seven ministries, and all the 10 projects were approved,” said Planning Minister MA Mannan while briefing reporters after the meeting.
The total estimated cost for the 10 projects is Tk 6,326.23 crore. Of the amount, Tk 5,326.91 crorewill come from the national exchequer while the remaining Tk 999.32 crore from the organisations concerned, he said.
Of the projects, nine are new and the rest is revised one.
The minister said the project, ‘Establishment of Axle Load Control Centres at Entry Points of Goods Transport in the Important Highways under the Road and Highways Department', will be implemented by June 2022.
Under the project, the axle load control centres will be set up at 21 points of important highways of the country, he said.
The main objective of the project is to monitor the overloaded vehicles, particularly trucks and lorries, he said.
The minister said the latest digitised technology and integrated automation system will be installed at the axle load control centres.
He said no-one can tamper the technology as information about overloaded vehicles will automatically be sent to the central office.
Talking about another project approved at the meeting, the Planning Minister said the government will set up laboratories for testing water quality in 52 districts across the country as there are such laboratories in the remaining districts.
The project titled 'strengthening testing system of water quality’ will be implemented by June 2022 at a cost of Tk 1708.56 crore.
About an approved project titled ‘construction of Narsingdi jail' involving Tk 326.98 crore, the Prime Minister directed all concerned to set up virtual courtroom in every jail so that it does not require to produce any dangerous accused before the court physically, said Mannan.
Every dangerous accused can be connected to the court through virtual channels like Skype from the jail, he said.
The Planning Minister said the Ecnec meeting cleared a project tiled '4-year performance based operation and strengthening of the Daudkandi-Chattogram portion of Dhaka-Chattogram 4-Lane Highways' involving Tk 793.14 crore.
The project will be completed in July 2023.
He said the meeting also approved a project titled 'Kurigram (Daserhat)-Nageswari-Bhurungamari-Sonahat Land Port Road' to upgrade the road into a national highway.
He said the project will be implemented by June 2022 at a cost of Tk 685 crore.
The other projects that got approval at the meeting include Upgrading Standard and Widening of Bhuapur-Tarakandi District Highway Project involving Tk 30 7.12 crore; Production and Preservation of Quality Potato Seeds as well as distribution of the Seeds at the Farmers-Level Project with Tk 688.21 crore; Expansion of Club Scouting in the Primary Schools (4th phase) Project with Tk355.41 crore; Further Development of Patuakhali Science and Technology University (2nd phase) Project with Tk 451.47 crore; and Conversion of 150-Megawatt Sylhet Gas Turbine Power Plant to 225-Megawatt Combined Cycle Power plant Project (2nd revised) with Tk 910.06 crore.
About inflation, the Planning Minister said the general inflation rate slightly came down to 5.49 percent in August last from 5.62 percent in the previous month (July 2019).