Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Thursday said service charge is not the main issue in providing transit and other facilities to India.
“We don’t consider the service charge as the main issue…this is one component. There’re more issues to be considered,” he said while briefing reporters on the outcome of a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase at the Secretariat.
The Cabinet body meeting, held with the finance minister in the chair, approved three procurement proposals related to the development of road facilities from Ashuganj river port to Akhaura land port.
Mustafa Kamal said the government considers some more issue like the country’s export promotion to India’s northern states known as seven sisters, reports UNB.
He said India provides financial support to Bangladesh through the Line of Credit (LoC) for those projects which are beneficial for both the countries.
The minister informed that the government is implementing a project to upgrade the two-lane road from Ashuganj to Akhaura into a four-lane one at a cost of about Tk 35.68 billion under different packages.
Of these, contract for the package-1 for upgrading a 12-km portion of Ashuganj river port-Sarail-Dharkhar-Akhaura land port road was awarded to Indian contractor Afcons Infrastructure Ltd at a contract value of Tk 5.72 billion while the package-2 of 27.05 kms to the same company at a contract value of Tk 18.74 billion.
The consultancy work of the same project was awarded to Indian state-owned company Rites Ltd along with its local joint venture partner Modern Engineering Planners and Consultants at Tk 1.18 billion.
The meeting also approved a proposal to award contract to Japanese firm TOA Corporation to develop the Japanese Economic Zone in Araihazar upazila of Narayanganj at a cost of Tk 10.81 billion.