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South Korea has put its hat in the ring to build Bangladesh’s second metro rail network in Chattogram after China presented a proposal for the project.
The government’s Public Private Partnership Authority is reviewing South Korea’s proposal, according to bdnews24.com.
South Korea put up the proposal in a meeting of the joint PPP Authority platform in Seoul on Mar 2. It also presented proposed cooperation on the water supply to Bangabandhu Industrial City in Chattogram’s Mirsarai, the construction of a solar power plant and the development of a community centre in Dhaka’s Gulshan-Banani areas.
It also agreed to accept Tk 75 billion Purbachal New Town Electrical Distribution Line project under PPP.
Abul Bashar, director-general of PPP Authority, said they were seeing South Korea’s interest in the planned metro rail project as a positive approach. The authority will send a letter to the Prime Minister’s Office to decide on the proposal.
Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited, which is implementing the Dhaka Metro Rail project, the first of the country, will also be consulted.
“Then we will inform South Korea which Bangladesh agency will work on the proposal. They will maintain communication with that agency and select investors in their country. This is how PPP projects are implemented,” Bashar said.
South Korea had earlier expressed interest in conducting a pre-feasibility study for the metro rail project in Chattogram. The Korea International Cooperation Agency on Feb 7 offered a $5 million donation for the study.
Bashar said it would be possible to determine the possible length, routes, cost and other details once a study is done.
The PPP Authority, Korea Overseas Infrastructure and Urban Development Corporation, and the South Korean government organised the meeting jointly.
In an email response to bdnews24.com, the South Korean Embassy in Dhaka said Korean Vice Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation Seong Won Yun, Bangladesh Secretary and CEO of the PPPA Sultana Afroz and Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Ahmad Kaikaus joined the meeting.
Kaikaus said in a virtual address to the meeting that South Korean investments had been there in Bangladesh and now the government was encouraging the Korean investors to back large infrastructures.
Earlier, four Chinese state-owned firms expressed keenness to build the planned metro rail network along with a ‘smart city’ on the land reclaimed from the sea in Chattogram.
They said they will fully fund the costs in exchange for a share of the profits from the township.
Officials at the Chattogram Development Authority, or CDA, said China would pay for the cost of a feasibility study for the metro rail.
The Chattogram City Corporation conducted a feasibility study in 2019 through a private firm, Basasthan Engineers and Consultants Limited, which recommended three rapid transit metro lines in the city, which would cost around Tk 860 billion.
But experts believe Chattogram metro rail may cost as much as Tk 1.0 trillion or even more. Businesses in Chattogram have been asking for a metro rail network including three to four routes connecting Mirsarai Economic Zone, industrial areas and the growth centres on the outskirts of the city.