A meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council in a meeting today is likely to review a proposal on the construction of the long-awaited Padma Barrage Project.

Bangladesh has long been attempting to construct the proposed barrage at Pangsha in Rajbari for improved management of the water it receives from India.

If approved, the project will be completed in June 2033.

The discussion on the project began after India had erected the controversial Farakka barrage on the transboundary river in West Bengal in 1975, and disrupted the flow of water.

But the feasibility study of the proposed Padma Barrage was completed in 2013.

The Awami League regime, which was ousted in August 2024 amid a mass uprising, had decided not to implement the project.

The interim government has revived the project with an estimated cost of Tk 50,443.64 crore, with the first part at 34,608 crore with its own fund, officials said.

The interim government will prefer foreign funds at suitable terms for the second part of the project that aims at countering Farakka impacts, reducing salinity and restoring rivers.

The project will also provide irrigation, hydropower, navigation, and ecosystem protection.

The ECNEC meeting to be presided over by chief adviser Muhammad Yunus will also review two dozen more project proposals.

The projects include the proposed 1,000-bed Bangladesh-China Friendship Hospital in Nilphamari, a district in the country’s northern region.

The cost of the hospital has been estimated at Tk 2,293 crore, with China agreeing to provide around Tk 2,220 crore as a grant.

The rest of the fund, or Tk 72.9 crore, would be provided by the Bangladesh government.

Planning commission officials who reviewed the project proposals said that the hospital was expected to provide advanced medical services not only to the district’s residents but also to nearly 1.76 crore people across the northern region, as well as patients from neighbouring countries.

China has expressed willingness to help construct two more hospitals in Bangladesh to promote its Health Silk Road, a rapidly expanding component of China’s broader Belt and Road Initiative.