Jamuna River Economic Corridor Development Project to cost $150m

In order to stimulate economic growth through a paradigm shift in river management, the Bangladesh government is going to undertake the Jamuna River Economic Corridor Development Project (Navigational Channel Development).

Total works of the program, requiring an estimated $150 million, would be completed based on a World Bank survey.

The Project Evaluation Committee (PEC) believes that the implementation of the project will have a positive impact on water resources management and will lead to significant improvements in the socio-economic sector.

“The Economic Relations Division (ERD) has not yet had any formal discussion with the World Bank about the program being funded by the World Bank,” Planning Commission Physical Infrastructure Division Member (Secretary) Satyajit Karmakar said

The project is to be jointly undertaken by the Ministry of Water Resources and the Ministry of Shipping. The two ministries were instructed to communicate with the ERD so they can finalise the funding type and amount. Additionally, they were also told to discuss and settle on the interest of the loan.

According to the sources of the Physical Infrastructure Department of the Planning Commission, Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100 has been formulated for the overall economic development of the Bengal Delta. One of the projects of this Delta Investment Plan is the Integrated Jamuna Rivers Stabilization and Reclamation project. The World Bank has been requested to finance this project.

World Bank with the help of the Institute of Water Modelling (IWM) has conducted a study to outline the mega project ‘Jamuna River Economic Corridor Development Project’, to be implemented in three phases in a total of 10 years.

The Program will support activities in the Jamuna River that invest in riverbank protection, navigation channel development, and stronger river institutions, with nature-based solutions (NBSs) as a guiding principle.

Regarding the channel of Jamuna where navigability improvement was proposed, the Ministry of Planning’s Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division chief (Additional Secretary) SM Hamidul Haque said that it should be checked whether the amount of water flow needed there can be ensured at all.

“Work should be started only after taking into account the availability of water in the areas where the channels would be made,” he added.

Jamuna is one of the three main rivers of Bangladesh and is the main distributary channel of the Brahmaputra River as it flows from India to Bangladesh. It is a braided river, or braided channel, which consists of a network of river channels separated by small, often temporary, islands locally known as chars. The chars submerge during the monsoon and the river emerges as a single channel. Due to the lack of enough depth, the water overflows and causes floods. This correspondent found that the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) will implement

“Riverbank Protection and River Training”, while Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) will implement “Navigation Channel Development”. A consultant agency has been appointed by the World Bank to carry out the survey work and project proposal for the “Navigation Channel Development” section of the work.

“If the two sub-projects of this cluster project are running side by side through the Ministry of Water Resources and the Ministry of Shipping, they would be more effective,” Ministry of Water Resources Joint Secretary Dipanwita Saha said regarding the issue.