After the Interim Government assumed office, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) held its first meeting on September 18 last year. At that meeting, Chief Adviser Dr. Muhammad Yunus stated, “From now on, we’ll prioritize small, people-centric projects over mega ones.” Since then, the Planning Adviser, Finance Adviser, and other government officials have also voiced support for avoiding large-scale projects.
However, on April 20, the ECNEC approved a major initiative—the Bay Terminal Marine Infrastructure Development Project (BTMIDP), with an estimated cost of BDT 135.25 billion.
The massive bay terminal is being built along the Bay of Bengal near Halishahar in Chattogram. The government plans to borrow BDT 93.33 billion from the World Bank to finance the project. The remaining BDT 41.92 billion will come from the national budget.
Interestingly, just six months before this approval—on September 2—Planning Adviser Dr. Wahiduddin Mahmud had warned against excessive reliance on foreign loans for infrastructure. At an event, he said, “Building infrastructure with borrowed money is not a mark of capability. We’re pushing forward with one major project after another, all funded through loans. Over the past three years, our external debt has doubled from $50 billion to $100 billion. Within the next two to three years, we’ll need to repay $5 billion annually. If we continue borrowing at this pace, our repayment burden will rise even further. That’s why we must weigh the costs and benefits carefully before taking on large infrastructure projects.”
Following the Bay Terminal project, the interim government is now planning another large-scale initiative: a 11-kilometer-long bridge between Bhola and Barisal. The estimated cost for this proposed project stands at BDT 174.66 billion.
Recently, Dr. Sheikh Moinuddin, Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser, visited the proposed project site along with senior officials from the Bridges Division. During a meeting there, it was stated that construction on the Bhola-Barisal bridge may begin in January.
When asked about the project, Mohammad Abdur Rouf, Secretary of the Bridges Division, told Bonik Barta, “The project will be implemented through a PPP (Public-Private Partnership) model. In March, we held discussions with a Japanese company and formally submitted a proposal to them. We hope the interested Japanese firm will visit Bangladesh soon to advance the next steps. Once they arrive, we can finalize the following phases. If we don’t receive Japanese investment, we will approach Korean investors. If the Koreans also show no interest, then we will consider whether the bridge can be built with government funding.”
Besides the Bhola-Barisal bridge, the Bhanga-Barisal-Patuakhali road will be upgraded to four lanes, Planning Adviser Wahiduddin Mahmud announced at a post-ECNEC press conference on May 7. Currently, a land acquisition project worth BDT 18.67 billion is underway for the highway’s development.
Earlier, the interim government approved the Kalurghat rail-cum-road bridge project costing BDT 115.6 billion at its second ECNEC meeting. Bangladesh is borrowing approximately $8.14 million from South Korea for this project.
Additionally, the interim government has approved several other projects, each costing over BDT 20 billion. These include the Mongla Port facilities expansion and development project at BDT 40.68 billion, the Chattogram water supply development project at BDT 39.21 billion, and the North Kattali catchment sanitation project in Chattogram metropolitan area at BDT 27.97 billion.
The white paper on the state of Bangladesh’s economy prepared by the interim government highlights massive waste and embezzlement through large projects during the previous Awami League government’s tenure. According to the report, about BDT 275 trillion was wasted or lost under Sheikh Hasina’s government in the name of development projects. Nearly BDT 7.2 trillion was spent through the Annual Development Programme (ADP), with up to 40 percent reportedly embezzled.
Devapriya Bhattacharya, chair of the White Paper Committee and an honorary fellow at the private research institute CPD, believes it is unclear whether the new projects taken up by the interim government will be free from waste and irregularities. He told Bonik Barta, “Previously, the main source of looting domestic resources was various ADP projects. We don’t know what steps the interim government has taken to drop the previous overpriced and unnecessary projects. There is no transparency about which new projects will be accepted and managed, or which old ones will continue or be dropped. There is also no clear policy.”
He added, “The projects the government is taking on now and plans to take won’t be implemented during this government’s tenure. So, I don’t understand why they are approving these projects. Also, we have criticized before that the previous projects lacked technical evaluation skills and either had no surveys or weak surveys. We’re not sure if the interim government has done proper pre-assessments of the new projects they’ve accepted.”
However, Planning Adviser Wahiduddin Mahmud described the large projects approved so far by the interim government as part of a farsighted plan. He told Bonik Barta, “We are generally not taking mega projects. There were many other mega projects, but we’re not taking those. Among the new mega projects being discussed, we have taken one or two that are farsighted.”
Planning Adviser Wahiduddin Mahmud said the interim government is working to maintain economic stability and pull the budget out of the debt trap. “We are aiming to keep the budget deficit below 4 percent of GDP. While it is possible to do many popular things now, those might have negative effects later, so we are avoiding that. We are not creating liabilities for the future; instead, we are paying off past debts,” he explained.
For the FY 2025-26, the Planning Commission has finalized a draft allocation of over BDT 2.38 trillion for the Annual Development Program (ADP). Of this, BDT 1.44 trillion will come from government funds, BDT 85.99 billion from agency’s own financing, and BDT 860 billion from foreign project assistance. A total of 1,143 projects will receive funding under the ADP. A significant portion of this allocation will go to both old and new mega projects.
However, Sajjad Zohir, Executive Director of the Economic Research Group (ERG), questions how effective the large projects approved or initiated so far by the interim government will be for the country’s economy. He told Bonik Barta, “It seems to me the interim government is identifying the Chattogram port and its related infrastructure as a mega hub. Recent statements from responsible government officials suggest that suitable infrastructure is necessary to attract foreign investment. That might explain why the government is prioritizing the development of Chattogram port and the Kalurghat bridge project. But I feel the government is taking a risky step here. There could be a misunderstanding on their part. The goals behind these projects and how well they will be implemented remain in question.”