100-bed cancer centre in divisional cities as ECNEC clears project

ECNEC chairperson and prime minister Sheikh Hasina chairs the ECNEC meeting held at the NEC conference room in Agargaon, Dhaka on Tuesday. Photo: PID
ECNEC chairperson and prime minister Sheikh Hasina chairs the ECNEC meeting held at the NEC conference room in Agargaon, Dhaka on Tuesday. Photo: PID

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on Tuesday approved a project involving over Tk 23.88 billion to set up a 100-bed full-fledged cancer centre in each government medical college hospital in every divisional cities, reports UNB.

The ECNEC cleared a total of eight projects with an estimated cost of Tk 89.68 billion.

The approval came from the ECNEC meeting held at the NEC conference room with ECNEC chairperson and prime minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

“Today, the meeting approved eight projects and the estimated cost of the project is Tk 89.68 billion,” said planning minister MA Mannan while briefing newsmen after the meeting.

Of the cost, Tk 89.52 billion will come from the national exchequer, while the rest 150.49 million from the funds of the agencies concerned, he said.

Of the approved projects, five are new and the remaining three are revised ones.

The planning minister said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) will implement ‘Establishment of 100-bed Full-fledged Cancer Centre in Government Medical College Hospital in Divisional City’ project.

The project will be implemented between October 2019 and September 2022.

The remaining four new projects are ‘Mymensingh (Raghurampur)-Fulpur-Nakla-Sherpur (R-371) Regional Highway Development’ project involving Tk 8.55 billion, ‘Upgrading pavement of the Bindur Mor-Biman Bandar-Naohata Bridge portion of Rajshahi-Naohata-Choumasia Road into four-lane’ with Tk 3.27 billion, ‘Construction of Rahonpur-Monakasha 400-KV Transmission Line in Chapainawabganj for importing electricity from Jharkhand of India to Bangladesh’ with Tk 2.25 billion, and ‘Research on Prevention and Control of Zoonosis and Transboundary Animal Diseases’ with Tk 1.50 billion.

The three revised projects are ‘Ashrayan-2 Project’ (3rd revised) involving Tk 48.26 billion, ‘Widening Upashahor Mor-Sonadighi and Malopara Mor-Sagorpara Mor roads in Rajshahi city’ (2nd revised) project with Tk 1.26 billion, and ‘Strengthening Monitoring and Evaluation Capabilities of IMED (SMECI)’ (3rd revised) project with Tk 651 million.

The planning minister said the implementation rate of Annual Development Programme (ADP) was 4.48 per cent in the first two months (July-August) of the current fiscal year, which is higher than 3.49 per cent in the same period of the last fiscal year.

He said the ADP expenditure is Tk 96.26 billion until August in 2019-20 fiscal, which was Tk 63.18 billion in the same time of 2018-19 fiscal.