Monday, June 23rd, 2008Reaffirming the caretaker government's commitment to hold general elections in December, Chief Adviser (CA) Fakhruddin Ahmed yesterday said his administration is working to ensure that the elections are free from the influence of money, muscle and misuse of authority.He said this when a six-member delegation of the board of directors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), led by Sebastian Paust, called on him at his office where they discussed political and socio-economic issues of the country.As the delegation appreciated the government's ongoing dialogue with political parties, Fakhruddin said he and the Election Commission (EC) staked out many times that the ...
(read more) Tuesday, June 17th, 2008The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is going to provide Bangladesh with food assistance of $130 million as budget support to meet the government's food requirement under its social safety net programmes in next fiscal year.Earlier, the government sought $200 million from ADB, which is acting as mediator for Bangladesh to get food aid from other development partners so that people don't face crisis."Bangladesh is suffering seriously due to the food price hike. So, ADB is providing the quick supports for Bangladeshi people in next July," Kunio Senga, director general of ADB for South Asia, told journalists at the secretariat following ...
(read more) Tuesday, April 29th, 2008The Power Cell under the power ministry has delayed the Bibiyana and Sirajganj 450 megawatt (MW) power projects for a month under pressure from two US bidders.The bidders AES and Chevron had been asking the bid submission date of Bibiyana power project be pushed back four to six months saying they cannot confirm availability of plant machinery due to high global demand for power plant equipment in recent months.The Power Cell settled for moving the Bibiyana project's bid submission date to July 15 from June 11.Consequently, its other bidding process for Sirajganj power project will be delayed ...
(read more) Saturday, June 2nd, 2007About a third of the country's 2,792km long railway network has become run-down, making travel by train a high risk venture with over 500 accidents a year. Although the situation has been the same for years now, the railway authorities have yet to take any effective measure to remedy the dangerous situation.Sources said run-down rail-tracks and an antiquated signalling system, especially in rural areas, have forced Bangladesh Railway (BR) engineers to impose speed limits of 5 to 40 km per hour (kph) on 30 segments of railroad in Dhaka division alone to avoid major accidents. The situation is worse ...
(read more) Monday, May 28th, 2007Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Adviser Tapan Chowdhury yesterday said the government has taken an initiative to import electricity from Myanmar and a delegation is scheduled to visit Yangon early next month to open discussion on the matter. Speaking at a meeting on 'Power sector reforms' with donors' representatives at the NEC Building in the capital, Tapan said the government is also exploring the possibility of importing electricity from Nepal and Bhutan.But, he said, it appeared that Nepal and Bhutan are already having bilateral agreements on power with India. Bangladesh's success in negotiations may take time, he added.Importing ...
(read more) Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007The caretaker government has stalled the much talked about investment proposal of a foreign company for constructing the first expressway in the country connecting the capital and port city Chittagong with an estimated expense budget of over $900 million. The proposal from a Malaysian construction group Azimat Consortium, got consent from a cabinet meeting in July last year during BNP-led four-party alliance government's rule.The proposal had also been approved by the Ministry of Communications and a high-powered private infrastructure committee (PICOM) before it was placed for the cabinet approval, according to sources.Azimat Consortium was supposed to start constructing ...
(read more) Monday, April 30th, 2007The Power Cell yesterday cancelled the third tender of the Sirajganj 450 megawatt power project.In a letter to the eight pre-qualified bidders of the third tender, the Cell said the government has decided to appoint a consultant from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to supervise the tender for the project. Under the circumstances, the ongoing tender process has been cancelled, the letter added.The fresh pre-qualification process will be initiated soon, the letter said, regretting inconveniences caused to the bidders--AES (USA), YTL (Malaysia), GMR (India), Globeleq-Summit Consortium (UK-Bangladesh joint venture), Manning Industries (USA), Marubeni Corporation (Japan), Orion-Delta (local), Esser Power-PHP Consortium ...
(read more) Friday, March 9th, 2007Having enjoyed popularity as the Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) mayor for a long time, ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury suddenly became a different person after being elected to the post for the third time in May 2005.Allegations of nepotism, misconduct with CCC officials and staff, encroaching on government land, and corruption surfaced against him during the past 22 months since the last mayoral election.Instead of fulfilling his 40-point pledge, Mohiuddin, who has 14 cases filed against him by the Anti-Corruption Commission, began his third tenure consolidating his own interests, sources alleged.Mohiuddin has been mostly criticised for his ill behaviour with the CCC ...
(read more) Friday, February 16th, 2007The government yesterday signed three credit agreements involving $ 170m with the World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to support the plans to transform Bangladesh Railways into a well-managed and customer-focused organisation.Of the total amount, ADB is providing $130 million under two agreements while the World Bank $ 40 million in the third agreement.ERD Secretary Md Aminul Islam Bhuiyan inked the deals for the government of while Country Directors Hua Du and Zhu Xian signed on behalf of ADB and WB at a simple ceremony at ERD's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar office.Penny Davies of DFID, UK, Masami Tamura of ...
(read more) Tuesday, February 6th, 2007Electricity costs in urban areas will go up by five per cent per unit above 100 units of consumption, decided the Advisers' Committee on Economic Affairs yesterday.A meeting of the Advisers' Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by committee Chairman Finance Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam took the decision yesterday.The procedures to make the new rates effective will be initiated immediately, the finance adviser told reporters after the meeting.For up to 100 units of consumption, electricity charge per unit would remain at the current rate Tk 2.5.But per unit electricity cost between 101 and 400 units will be increased to Tk ...
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