Committee to formulate plan, implement project

"The committee was formed on September 28 as per demand of the World Bank (WB) to set up a separate authority to implement the project," said a source at the Water Resources Ministry.

The committee headed by Saifur Rahman comprises five cabinet ministers, Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) mayor, two state ministers, principal secretary to the Prime Minister, nine secretaries of different ministries and heads of Rajuk, Roads and Highways, Dhaka Wasa, Local Government and Engineering Division, Forest and Environment Department, CEO of DCC and Water Development Board Director General, who has been made member-secretary.

The committee will form a detail plan of the project mentioning scope of work, objectives, components, financing and implementation methodology of the project.

It will also recommend about the coordination during the implementation period of the project.

The Dhaka integrated flood control dam-cum-eastern bypass project is a multi-dimensional, complicated and expensive plan, sources said.

For the project's largeness and huge monetary involvement, Saifur earlier said, "We need to conduct more and more studies on whether we have capacity and other regulatory measures to carry out the work."

The cost of the project was estimated at Tk 2,475.82 crore, of which, Tk 821.65 crore was supposed to be provided by development partners, particularly WB and the remaining Tk 1,654.16 crore by local sources.

About the project, Saifur said the cost was projected in 1999 and it would not be less than Tk 3,000 crore in 2005.