Malaysian firm to build Bangladesh highway
Bangladesh has given the go-ahead to a Malaysian firm's proposal to construct a highway linking Dhaka and Chittagong at a cost of $896 million - the biggest private investment in road building.
A senior official of the communications ministry here said a high-powered committee approved the proposal last week and sent it to the cabinet for final approval.
"If the cabinet approves the proposal, it will be the biggest private sector investment in the road sector," the official told Wednesday.
The Malaysian company, Azimat Consortium, will build the 210-km highway to Chittagong, about 250 km southeast of here, under the 'Build Own Operate and Transfer' scheme.
Under the proposal submitted by Azimat to the communications ministry in June this year, the 210 km four-lane toll highway will be constructed in five years without any financial involvement of the Bangladesh government.
The proposal also seeks a 35 year concession period, including 5 years of construction time, tax holiday for 10 years after starting toll collection and duty-free import of equipment for construction purposes. The toll collection has been divided into 5 year slabs and the company estimates that it will earn about $12.7 billion in toll revenue over 30 years.
The company proposes to construct 13 flyovers, 2 bridges on the Meghna and Sitalakhya rivers, 4 toll plazas, parking lots, rest houses, toilets, CNG and petrol filling stations, eateries and mosques. It will also install closed circuit television cameras at strategic points.
The highway will augment the Chittagong port's activities by ensuring rapid supply and delivery of export and import items from the capital to the port city and vice versa.
1 comment:
This will really tremendoes effect to our economy since the time taken from Chittagong and Dhaka will be cut short. But why is it I haven't read much about it even though it have such a impact to our economy.
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