Eight projects out of 15 taken up under the USD 800-million Indian line of credit (LoC) have been completed during the last three-and-a-quarter years. In the past six years, only 54.6 per of the first total LoC was implemented, disclosed sources in the Economic Relations Division (ERD). ERD sources said the progress of implementation of the LoC projects was satisfactory, with almost 100 per cent of the contracts having been signed. The remaining seven projects are also on track.
During the past three years, the Indian government has disbursed a total of USD 354 million out of USD 800 million of the Indian LoC and USD 354 million in grants till date, according to ERD sources.
The ERD officials said there was a practical problem as far as Bangladesh was concerned in implementing the projects—the land acquisition problem.
According to the finance ministry, the government is utilising the USD 200-million grant portion of the Indian USD 1-billion LoC for the Padma Multipurpose Bridge (PMB) project.
The ERD’s additional secretary (Asia wing), Shah Aminul Haque, said the conditions of the Indian LoC were definitely tough. “I am not sure how much time it would take to implement the three Indian LoCs.” India has pledged to provide two more LoCs, worth USD 2 billion and USD 4.5 billion respectively. Bangladesh and India signed the USD 1-billion line-of-credit on August 7, 2010, during the visit of the then Indian finance minister and incumbent president Pranab Mukherjee. Later, during his visit to Dhaka, Mukherjee announced that India had decided to consider giving USD 200 million of the USD 1 billion LoC to Bangladesh as a grant, and Bangladesh could utilise the fund for its priority projects.
India’s USD 1 billion line-of-credit for Bangladesh was the largest it has offered any country in 2010. The rest of the seven projects that are yet to be implemented are: construction of the Khulma-Mongla port rail line, including feasibility study  (USD 308.92 billion); construction of the second Bhairab and second Titas Bridge with approach rail lines (USD 102.9 million); construction of the third and fourth dual gauge tracks between Dhaka and Tongi sections and the doubling of the dual gauge track between Tongi and Joydevpur sections, including signalling works, on Bangladesh Railway; procurement of 129 numbers of broad-gauge (BG) coaches (123.1 million); modernisation and strengthening of the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) (USD 2.47 million); rehabilitation of the Khulaura-Shabazpur section of Bangladesh Railway (BR) (USD 78.1 million); and replacement and modernisation of signalling, including systems of three stations, of the Ashuganj-Akhaura section in the east zone of BR (USD 3.63 million).