BartaBangla Desk :: State-owned China Poly Group International has promised to invest $2.4 billion in the 6.15 kms rail-road bridge, which Bangladesh wants to build with its own resources.

Communication Minister Obaidul Quader told media persons that the Chinese state-owned firm has expressed its desire to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bangladesh to seal the deal.

Quader says the Chinese firm has proposed to fund and built the bridge on a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis.

“The company has proposed to sign the MoU under Government-to-Government (G2G) arrangements. The proposal had come earlier, but official talks took place today,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

He was speaking after meeting the representatives of the Chinese firm and Exim Bank at the Secretariat.

Poly Technologies’ Finance department General Manager Zhao Lingzhi, Senior Project Manager Jaiang Ying, Exim Bank Assistant President Yang Biao and Business Manager Li Yiding were at the meeting.

Quader said China has expressed intent to invest in several infrastructure projects in Bangladesh.

“Of them, the proposal to build the ‘Dhaka-Chittagong Elevated Expressway’ is noteworthy. We have to evaluate whether we can go ahead with it.”

Quader said he was keen “to finish” some of the projects before the government’s tenure ends.

The proposal has been sent to the Economic Relations Division (ERD), Quader said. “The final decision will be taken after the proposal is evaluated.”He said Bangladesh’s interest will be given priority while taking any decision on how the Padma bridge, Bangladesh’s biggest-ever infrastructure project, is financed and built.

“China’s proposal may be a better one than the World Bank’s one.”

The World Bank was supposed to give a $1.2 billion fund for the $2.9 billion project.

But Bangladesh government in January this year withdrew its funding request to the global lender after a tug-of-war over graft allegations involving ministers and government officials.

That was followed by Chinese and Malaysian proposals to fund and built the huge bridge but the Sheikh Hasina government put all speculation to rest by announcing it will fund the project with its own resources.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith allocated TK 68.52 billion ($ 0.88 billion) for the project in the 2013-14 national budget while a Tk 91 billion global tender was floated for the construction of the bridge’s mainframe.

Now it seems the Hasina government is reconsidering the issue of foreign funding and this Chinese firm seems to be prepared for financing almost 80 percent of the project cost, leaving Bangladesh no worry to look for other funding source like ADB or JICA.