A high-level review of the implementation of government's 'fast-track' projects will take place soon, officials said on Friday.
The first-track project monitoring taskforce, headed by principal secretary to the Prime Minister's Office, would sit with the project authorities "within the shortest possible time", they said.
"The taskforce will mainly review the current status of the 10 ongoing mega projects. The main objective of the meeting is to streamline the execution of the development work," said an Economic Relations Division (ERD) official.
"The taskforce meeting was to be held at the PMO on February 7. Now, the review will be held at the soonest possible time," he added.
The ERD has been assigned to provide secretarial support to the taskforce at the PMO.
The ministries and agencies have already been asked to submit their project implementation status to the ERD and take preparations for the upcoming meeting, the ERD official said.
Among the 10 mega projects, at least half of them are performing well while the rest have been struggling with implementations delays, project insiders said.
The Rampal 2X660-megawatt (MW) coal fired power plant, Pyra port development work, Padma bridge railway link project, Dohazari-Ramu-Cox's Bazar railway track projects and Matarbari-Maheshkhali development programme are beset with implementation delays, they added.
The ERD official said, "The taskforce will try to find out the reasons behind the implementation delays in the next meeting. Besides, it will try to remove the hurdles that constrain the execution."
In early 2019, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina-led high-powered monitoring committee reviewed the progress of 10 ongoing mega projects.
She sat with the project implementing authorities after the fourth review meeting held in 2016.
"Since the government is trying to inaugurate some infrastructure projects within this Mujibbarsha, the PMO is concerned over their execution in time," another ERD official said.
He said, "Some projects are on track, and some are behind the target due to different factors. We hope the PM'O meeting will help streamline the implementation of all of the projects."
After the delay at the outset, at least five out of 10 ongoing fast-track mega projects are going on smoothly.
The floating LNG terminal at Maheshkhali, one of the fast-track projects, has already been completed.
Besides, the US$ 2.5-billion Padma bridge, Russian-backed $14.14-billion Rooppur nuclear power plant, Japan-aided $4.5-billion Matarbari coal-fired power plant, and $2.74-billion Uttara-Motijheel metro-rail projects have got the implementation momentum.
However, the Asian Development Bank-supported $2.25-billion Dohazari-Cox's Bazar-Gundhum railway line, China-supported $4.37 billion Padma Bridge railway link, and the multi-donor-funded Payra deep-sea port projects still have some problems in execution.
In addition, the 1,320-MW Rampal coal-fired power plant project near the Sundarbans suffered initial delays in the face of opposition from environmentalists.
