Padma multipurpose bridge (PMB) project was a much weighted issue in the election manifesto of the incumbent Awami league led government. The 6.15 km long bridge that would connect around 60 million people in the country’s south-east to Dhaka and the rest of the nation is not only the single largest infrastructure project for any Bangladeshi government, but also for the World Bank’s. The project involves construction of about 6.15 km main bridge at Mawa- Janjira Corridor with River Training Works (RTWs) 6 km at Mawa Site and 12 km at Janjira Site. This project was pledged to be completed in the tenure of this government. But the government has only about 12 months to be expired on and yet the drama or suspense is going on and the future of this bridge is still uncertain. At a very earlier stage of this project, the estimated budgeted cost was $1.40 billion and then a revised estimation shows an upward budget of $2.9 billion owing to rising costs of construction materials and other factors. The four major financiers of this project were the World Bank (WB), manila based ADB, Japan based JICA and Jeddah based IDB with respective funding of $1.2 billion, $615 million, $400 million, and $ 140 million. The project was supposed to contain Bridge End Facilities (BEF) at both sides, 5 resettlement sites, railway line with stations and docking facilities, high voltage power and high pressure gas transmission lines, optical fiber cable, and necessary relevant activities. According to a forecast by the Asian Development Bank the much sought Padma Bridge will provide benefit to 30 million people directly and boost Bangladesh’s GDP by 1.2 percent, once completed.
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| *A Night view of the proposed Padma Bridge. |
Subsequently,
at a time when WB suspended and later cancelled the funding with a material allegation
of corruption and graft, other lenders remained cordial but did not come
forward without the participation of WB. But the government insisted their
innocence and termed everything as a misunderstanding. The allegation of
ministerial corruption and wrong-doing is nothing new for Bangladesh. In this
backdrop, a question might arise that if the World Bank evidence is so
innocuous, if everyone involved in the project are monk like innocent and WB
misunderstands the government then what’s stopping the Bangladesh government
from releasing the evidences. Besides that, there remain some questions to be
answered and some issues to be cleared.
When WB showed an obvious disregard and put up some conditions for reinstate financing then our prime minister took it as resentment to our sovereignty and pledged to finance the project from our own capacity. Then a huge appreciation was received from the whole county people with some bad issues as well. Though the own financing has a risk of putting our economy in a vulnerable position but the people was happy from their emotion. On the other hand, as about three-fourths of the cost of the bridge will have to be paid in foreign currency and it is not sustainable by self-financing, our finance minister simultaneously insisted that without WB, the project is a dream. Hence, a clear disharmony, disagreement and mis-coordination were observed in the cabinet.
Sometimes, our PM alleges the involvement of Dr. Muhammad Yunus in influencing the WB funding as a row persists on the issue of Grameen Bank. As it is well-known that, Dr. Yunus attended Vanderbilt University, USA and maintains an amiable relationship with Hillary Clinton; hence, there may be a conception that Dr. Yunus could influence the WB funding through his lobbying. Recently, our finance minister alleged Dr. Yunus for sluggish pace of foreign investment and then withdrew the statement. Nobel laureate Dr. Yunus is worldwide respected person for his concepts of microfinance and social business. So, the altercation between government and such a respected person undermines our image as a nation. So, if there is any fact of his involvement then that should be substantively proved through a probe and revealed publicly. If not, the issue of alleging him for everything must be seriously waived.
When World Bank came back to this project on condition, government agreed to implement WB’s conditions. Adviser Dr. Mashiur’s dilemma in the media to go on leave and no proclamation from PM’s office about his leave has created much comedy and gave issues to opposition to criticize the government. Minister Abul Hossain’s resignation when media is busy with the funeral of prominent writer Humayun Ahmed, the reshuffle of cabinet and announce that every minister was very successful to their job actually creates humor and dissatisfaction to the people’s mind. Hence, to compromise with the WB by agreeing with its conditions without any through probe against the accused is an ethical defeat of the government. The UK based magazine ‘The
Economist’ humiliated our country’s image by publishing some news
negatively. The Wall Street Journal and international newspapers often publishes news on Padma Bridge and WB issues focusing on the corruption and graft and finishes the report with a conclusion of our corruption records of the past. Consequently, as a nation it is very much humiliating and disgraceful to us.
Very recently, chairman of the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) insisted that the inquiry team found substantial clues to corruption conspiracy regarding appointment of a consultant for the PMB project. In this context, the government seems to be gradually turning off its focus from construction of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project within its tenure, realizing that the graft-related dilemma with the World Bank (WB) is unlikely to be resolved shortly. This state of deadlock is substantiated by the failure to bring any positive result by the government on the sideline of the World Bank-International Monetary Fund (IMF) conference in Tokyo. So, general people are in dark about the latest development of much sought PMB project.
The major portion of our annual development budget is donor-funded. Thence, to overcome these deadlock situations in future the government should earnestly try to reach in a position where we ourselves can manage the fund from our economy to build such big infrastructures. But, at the last, if I ask what is going on in PMB project, what the answer will be from the authority concerned.
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