The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) on Tuesday cleared nine projects including a Tk 426-crore one to activate ‘Gram Adalat’ (village court) in a bid to enhancing the access of the rural poor and disadvantaged people to the justice system.
The approval came from the Ecnec meeting presided over by Ecnec chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the NEC Conference Room in the city’s Sher-e Bangla Nargar area.
“Today the meeting approved nine projects with an overall estimated cost of Tk 1,730.38 crore (only additional costs of revised projects were counted here),” said Planning Minister MA Mannan while briefing reporters after the meeting.
Also Read: Tk 4323-crore project to improve disaster preparedness, 7 others get Ecnec nod
Of the total cost, Tk 6,33.52 crore will be drawn from the national exchequer, while Tk 1.44 crore will come from the owned fund of the organisations concerned and the rest Tk 1,095.42 crore from the foreign sources.
Among the approved projects, five are revised projects and four are fresh ones.
The project titled ‘Activating Gram Adalat in Bangladesh (Phase-III)’ will be implemented by the Local Government Division at a cost of Tk 426.35 crore by June 30, 2027. Of the fund, the EU and the UNDP will provide some Tk 268.84 crore as project assistance.
The project will be executed in 4,457 unions of 465 upazilas under 61 districts. Of them, the maintenance activities of the already set up village courts in 1,416 unions under the first two phases will be run and the fresh court operation will be started in 3,041 other unions.
Three other fresh projects are Construction of 112 flats at Agargaon in Dhaka for government officials of Bangladesh Parliament Secretariat with an estimated cost of Tk 98.22 crore; Feasibility Study for Construction of Important Bridges on Rural Roads (Phase-II) project with Tk 80 crore; and the project for the Improvement of Equipment for Technical Education with Tk 98.01 crore.
The five revised projects include Sustainable Coastal and Marine Fisheries (1st revised) Project with additional cost of Tk 588.67 crore (now cost Tk 2,457.54 crore); Capacity Enhancement of Dhaka Metropolitan Police to Tackle Terrorism and Ensure Public Safety (1st revised) Project with additional cost of Tk 229.82 crore (now cost is Tk 309.48 crore); Countrywide Mobile Library (2nd revised) Project with additional cost of Tk 37.47 crore (now cost Tk 111.16 crore); and Installation of Prepaid Gas Meter for TGTDCL (3rd revised) Project with additional cost of Tk 174.39 crore (now cost Tk 928.23 crore).
Besides, the meeting cleared the Establishment of Dhaka Technical Teachers Training Institute (3 rd revised) Project with a cut of Tk 2.55 crore in the cost (Now cost is Tk 96.13 crore).