The Planning Commission (PC) has taken a tough stance against the projects in the Barishal region that have made very poor progress, in terms of their execution.
Planning Minister M.A. Mannan himself would look into the reasons behind the failure of the agencies concerned, officials said on Tuesday.
The planning minister M would sit with the poor performing project authorities in Barishal tomorrow (Thursday) and review the progress of the progress, they said.
The minister left Dhaka on Tuesday night for a three-day visit to the southern city district Barishal and Patuakhali.
Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) secretary Pradip Ranjan Chakraborty is accompanying the minister.
According to IMED, some six ongoing development projects in Barishal region have made "no progress", although the government approved those more than a year ago.
Besides, another 13 ongoing development projects could make progress ranging between 1.0 and 25 per cent during their tenure.
According to the IMED, different government ministries and agencies have undertaken as many as 67 development projects in the Barishal division.
A senior PC official noted that some project directors were so incapable that they could not start implementation of the projects in more than one and a half years after approval by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC).
"We will not tolerate such high level of inefficiency on the part of the authorities concerned. They must work for development of the country," he said.
Planning Minister MA Mannan had taken a tough stance against such incapability of the authorities concerned, the official added.
According to the IMED sources, the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has so far failed to start the work on the Tk 3.12 billion Barishal (Charkawa) to Bhola (Ilisha Ferighat) via Laxmipur Road Widening Project, although it had been launched one year and nine months ago.
Similarly, the RHD implemented only 5.4 per cent of the land acquisition for the Tk 18.68 billion project for upgrading the Faridpur-Bhanga-Patuakhali (N-8) road to a 4-lane one in last two and a half years.
The project is scheduled to be completed in June this year.
The Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park Authority has spent only 1.21 per cent of the Tk 1.79 billion fund for the IT/Hi-Tech park setting up (12-district) project over the last three and a half years.
This ongoing project is scheduled to be completed in June this year.
When asked, a senior IMED official said the implementing agencies in Barishal have made their worst performance.
" It is essential to know the reasons behind the non-performance or under-performance of the project executing agencies. We will find out the causes and try to resolve the same," he added.
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