The approval came from the 23rd Ecnec meeting 

of the current fiscal, held at the NEC conference room with Ecnec Chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

The Prime Minister joined the meeting through videoconference from her official residence Ganobhaban.

“We’ve placed 10 projects of seven ministries at the today’s meeting. The total estimated cost of the 10 approved projects is Tk 16,276.03 crore. Of the cost, Tk 14,401.52 crore will come from the national exchequer,” said Planning Minister MA Mannan while briefing reporters after the meeting.

He said four projects out of the ten actually got approval earlier, though we placed these at the meeting for formal approval.

The two COVID-19 projects are ‘COVID-19 Emergency Response and Pandemic Preparedness Project’ involving Tk 1,127.52 crore, and ‘COVID-19 Response Emergency Assistance Project’ with Tk 1,364.56 crore.

The Directorate General of Health Services under the Health Services Division will implement the two COVID-19 projects from April 2020 to June 2023.

Talking about the two projects, the Planning Minister said though the two projects were approved earlier, today’s meeting didn’t bring any amendment to the projects.

During the approval of the two COVID-19 projects, the Prime Minister stressed the need for enhancing oxygen supply to hospitals and having ICU units in every district hospital, said MA Mannan.

According to the project factsheet, the main objective of the ‘COVID-19 Emergency Response and Pandemic Preparedness Project’ are strengthening the health system and preparedness of health workers for COVID-19 surveillance, detection and diagnosis; enhancing the capacity and coverage areas of diagnosis laboratories; and increasing treatment scope for the patients by setting up Isolation Unit and Critical Care Unit in district hospitals.

The main operations of the project include expansion of microbiology laboratories including PCR in 21 institutes– 17 medical college hospitals, three infectious disease hospitals and one specialized hospital BITID, Chattogram; setting up a 20-bed isolation unit and 5-bed critical care unit in every district sadar hospital across the country; launching a 250-bed separate COVID-19 hospital at Mohakhali in the capital for frontline workers including physicians, nurses, health workers, government officials, police and Ansar; and setting up 16 medical centres in three international airports, eight domestic airports and three seaports for enhancing the capacity to detect COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.

Of the total project, Tk 850 crore will come from the World Bank as project loan, while Tk 277.5161 crore from the GoB fund.

The COVID-19 Response Emergency Assistance Project was undertaken with a view to strengthening the health system for facing COVID-19 and providing medical treatment to the patients; setting up modern microbiology laboratories including PCR for COVID-19 and other pandemics if emerge in the future; and enhancing the capacity of 17 medical college hospitals through recruitment of necessary manpower alongside ensuring isolation units and critical care units.  

The main project operations include expansion of microbiology laboratories including PCR in 19 institutes – 10 medical college hospitals, 5 infectious disease hospitals and four special institutes, BSMMU, IPH, IEDCR and NILMRC in Dhaka; launching 50-bed isolation centre and additional 10-bed critical care unit/ICU in 17 medical college hospitals, and establishing medical centre in 26 land ports to detect infectious diseases.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) finances Tk 849.97 crore as loan to implement the COVID-19 Response Emergency Assistance Project.

Besides, the Ecnec meeting cleared four other fresh projects while revised four old projects.

The other new projects are the 7th phase of the mosque-based child and mass education programme involving  Tk 3,128.46 crore; making crops production more profitable through innovation of agricultural machinery and appropriate technology project with Tk 56 crore;  Production, processing and distribution of good quality spice seeds project with Tk 60.50 crore; and project on development of drainage system of polder 1, 2, 6-8 and extension of 6-8 in Satkhira district with Tk 475.26 crore.

Among the four revised projects, Primary Education Stipend Project-Phase III was revised for 2nd time, increasing its cost by Tk 6,843.28 crore; while Distribution Network Expansion for 100 Percent Rural Electrification (Rajshahi, Rangpur, Khulna and Barishal divisions) project was revised for the first time enhancing the cost by Tk 1,587.99 crore.

The rest two revised projects are Distribution Network Expansion for 100 Percent Rural Electrification (Dhaka, Mymensingh, Chattogram and Sylhet divisions) (1st revised) Project with rise of Tk 1,237.69 crore in its cost and Dasherkandi Sewage Treatment Plant Project with the rise of Tk 394.77 crore in its cost.

At the meeting, the Ecnec greeted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for getting international recognition over tackling COVID-19 and recent super cyclone Amphan from prestigious US magazine ‘Forbes’ and United Nations Secretary-General  António Guterres respectively.