The South Korean firm Korea Expressway Corporation (KEC) will collect the toll from Dhaka-Mawa Expressway which was named "Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Highway".

The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase (CCGP) in a meeting on Wednesday appointed the KEC for a five-year term as its service provider at a cost of Tk 717.04 crore.

Also read:Govt selects South Korean company for toll collection system on Dhaka-Mawa-Bhanga expressway

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal presided over the meeting which was attended by the committee members.

Additional secretary to the Cabinet Division Zillur Rahman while briefing reporters about the decision of the committee said this toll collection from the expressway will be in addition to the toll of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge.

The toll for the Padma Multipurpose Bridge has already been fixed by the Bridges Division.

But the toll of the Dhaka-Mawa Expressway will be fixed by the Roads and Highways Department (RHD), he added.

He, however, did not give any detail of the toll structure of the Dhaka-Mawa Expressway.

The additional secretary also said that the KEC was selected through direct procurement method, which means it did not have to go through any competitive process to qualify for the contract.

He said the KEC will install the Intelligent Transport System (ITS) and also run the operation and maintenance (O&M) service for the next five years.

The committee also approved 14 more proposals of which nine were for raising costs of its different construction and procurement projects of different departments and divisions including the Public Works Department (PWD), Roads and Highways Department (RHD) and Local Government Division.

The CCGP approved a proposal of the Public Works Department to award a Tk 120.38 crore contract to The Engineers & Architects Ltd., to construct 430 flats at Asad Avenue in Mohammadpur Housing Estate (Grihayan Kanakchapa) and Satmasjid Road (Grihayan Dolonchapa).

Four residential buildings will be built under the project for the 430 flats.

Also read:Dhaka-Mawa-Bhanga Expressway to open up new era of road connectivity

Meanwhile, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved a proposal in principle to procure three kinds of First line Anti-TB Drugs (FLDs) from ACI HealthCare Ltd, the lone local producer of the drugs.

These drugs will be distributed all over the country except Cox's Bazar district at free of cost to continue uninterrupted the health service to contain TB diseases  under the Directorate General of Health Services' TBL and ASP Operational Plan.

But the committee rejected a proposal of the Directorate General of Health Services to procure "Cold Chain Equipment" through UN-body Unicef under "Covid-19 Emergency Response and Pandemic Preparedness" project.