Bangladesh has so far received only 11.45 per cent or around US$900 million out of the total commitments under the Indian Line of Credits (LoCs).
The slow disbursements were due to delays in implementation of the development projects taken under three LoCs with a total commitment of $7.862 billion since 2010.
Pankaj Kumar Singh, Adviser (Infrastructure) of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, shared the performance status with a group of journalists at the Indian High Commission office in Dhaka on Thursday.
He, however, expected that the disbursements would cross $1.0 billion by next year as both India and Bangladesh have strengthened the monitoring of the projects to overcome the existing hurdles.
He also explained the reasons behind the sluggish project-implementation progress as discussed in a two-day review meeting that concluded in Dhaka on the day.
The progress of some 43 projects under the LoCs came under the scrutiny of the 19th India-Bangladesh LoC Review Meeting, held physically for the first time in 19 months as the Covid-induced lockdown and movement restrictions were relaxed.
Additional Secretary of ERD Md Shahriar Kader Siddiky led the Bangladesh side at the meeting while Joint Secretary (DPA1) of Ministry of Indian External Affairs Shridharan Madhusudhanan led the 12-member Indian delegation.
Deputy High Commissioner to Bangladesh Binoy George and Indian Exim Bank General Manager Saroj Khuntia were in the Indian delegation.
The project directors and representatives from Indian companies executing the LoC-funded projects also attended the meeting.
The review meeting has identified reasons behind the project-implementation delays that included taking a long time in project-preparation work, lack of proper preparation process and slow disbursement of loans.
Mr Singh informed that out of the $7.862 billion commitment under the LoCs, $7.7 billion against 43 selected projects have already been blocked.
Asked about the project delays, he said taking a long time to prepare project proposals, major design changes, conflicts with other projects were among the reasons for the delays.
Replying to another question, he said the two sides have been trying to address the issues affecting the project implementation.
Meanwhile, the Indian High Commission in Dhaka issued a press release on the day, informing that the total loan disbursements as of October 25, 2021 were approximately $ 865 million.
Under the first LoC of $862 million, 12 out of 15 projects have already been completed and 3 projects were under execution.
Under the second LoC of $2.0 billion, 2 projects are already complete and the other projects are under various stages of implementation.
Under the third LoC of $4.5 billion, one project has reached execution stage, while the other projects were under various stages of DPP finalisation and tendering.
smunima@yahoo.com