The Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) on Tuesday approved a total of 18 development projects with the overall estimated cost of Tk 11,388 crore.

The approval came from the Ecnec meeting presided over by Encec chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the NEC conference room in the city’s Sher-e Bangla Nagar area.

Also Read: Ecnec clears 12 projects, including one to raise cost of Padma Bridge construction

“Today 18 projects were approved. The overall estimated cost of the projects is Tk 11,387.91 crore (only additional cost of the revised projects were counted here),” said Planning Minister MA Mannan at a press briefing after the meeting.

Of the cost, the government of Bangladesh will finance Tk 7,445.34 crore, while Tk 3,861.79 crore will come from the foreign sources and the rest Tk 80.78 crore from the funds of the organisation concerned, he said.

Of the approved projects, nine are new and the rest are revised projects.

Also Read: ECNEC nods 11 projects with estimated cost of Tk 4,252.66 crore

The fresh projects include ‘Protection of Shaheed Bir Shrestha Munshi Abdur Rauf Memorial Museum’s Link Road and other areas on the left bank of  the Madhumati River from erosion and dredging in the river under Faridpur District’ project, involving an estimated cost of Tk 481.10 crore;  ‘Bagerhat District Rural Infrastructure’ project with Tk 877.53 crore: ‘Netrakona District Rural infrastructure Development’ project with Tk 1428 crore; ‘Narail District Rural Infrastructure Development’ project with Tk 250 crore; and ‘Development of location-based rice varieties and technology and development of existing laboratories by setting up 6 new regional offices of the Ministry of Agriculture’ with Tk 369.30 crore.

The other new projects are ‘Construction of 19 hostel buildings with modern facilities for the students of 10 medical colleges’ with Tk 1,418.75 crore; ‘Construction of Fine Arts Faculty Building at Jahangirnagar University’ with Tk 96.96 crore; ‘Higher Education Acceleration and Transformation (HEAT)’ with TK 4016.57 crore; and ‘Establishment of Meat Processing Plant in Savar Cantonment Area’ with Tk 89.02 crore.

The revised projects are ‘Establishment of Patuakhali Medical College and Hospital, Patuakhali (1st Revised)’ with an additional cost of Tk 66.55 crore (now cost TK 651 core); ‘Ashrayan-2 (5th revised) Project’ with a cost reduction of Tk 2,343.23 crore ( Now cost came down to TK 8,799.65 crore); ‘Development of Important Urban Infrastructures (Phase-II) (1st Revised)’ with additional cost of Tk 953 crore (now cost Tk 4,418.50 crore); ‘Bangladesh Regional Connectivity Project-1 Development of Shewla, Ramgarh and Bholaganj Land Ports and Modernization of Security System of Benapole Land Port (2nd Revised)’ with additional cost of Tk 234.27 crore (now cost Tk 966.13 crore); ‘Construction of three link roads including link roads connecting Satkhira Road and City Bypass Road (1st Revised)’ with additional cost of Tk 323.13 crore (now cost Tk 717.80);  ‘Chattogram City Outer Ring Road ( 4th revised)’ with additional cost of Tk 648.19 crore (now cost Tk 3,324.15 crore);  ‘DGFI’s Telecommunication and ICT Infrastructure, Human Resource and Technical Capacity Capability Building (TIHDTCB) (2nd Revised)’ with additional cost of Tk 253.81 crore (now cost Tk 1,521.76 crore);  ‘Construction of 3rd and 4th Dual-Gauge Lines on Dhaka-Tongi Section and Dual-Gauge Double Line on Tongi-Joydebpur Section of Bangladesh Railway (2nd Revised)’ with additional cost of Tk 2,235.75 crore (now cost Tk 3,342.55 crore); and Establishment of National Development Administration Academy (3rd revised) with a cost reduction of Tk 20.79 crore (now cost Tk 237.38 crore).