The objective of the proposed project is to reduce congestion and improve mobility and connectivity by addressing the cross-river bottleneck between Mymensingh and Shambhugonj on the Dhaka-Mymensingh-India corridor.
The project seeks to ease traffic congestion in the Mymensingh City by diverting traffic away from the city’s central area via the construction of the Kewatkhali Bridge over the Brahmaputra River at Mymensingh with the overpasses and approach road. The proposed project consists of three components as described below.
Component 1. Bridge and Approach Roads with road and rail overpasses construction works. The project will support the construction of the Kewatkhali Bridge, about 1100 meters in length and an approach road of about six kilometers in length. Other ancillary works to make the project bridge fully functional will include the installation of traffic management equipment and traffic surveillance, installation of state-of-the-art Bridge Health Monitoring System (BHMS) over the main bridge, street lighting and landscaping, construction of Operation and Maintenance (O&M) facilities, and communication systems.
Component 2. Consulting services. This component will comprise the financing of bridge and approach roads construction supervision.
Component 3: Project management support and capacity building. This component is comprised of project management costs of the project implementation unit. The project will also support the training, capacity building and institutional development of RHD for operating, managing and maintaining the RHD roads and bridges of the project division areas. This is of particular importance given this will be the first arch steel bridge in the country and the RHD has no previous experience on the O&M of this type of bridge.
For more information about project financing, please review the project summary.
The Bank’s Environmental and Social Policy (ESP), including the Environment and Social Standards (ESSs) and the Environmental and Social Exclusion List applies to this Project. ESS 1 (Environmental and Social Assessment and Management) and ESS 2 (Involuntary Resettlement) are applicable for this Project. The Project has been classified as Category A, given that the alignment of the road passes through built-up areas in the city at the southwest side of the Brahmaputra River, which will require a considerable amount of resettlement and relocation of residential and business entities.
RHD has prepared an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for clearance by the Government. The EIA has been updated to meet the requirements of AIIB’s ESP, including an Environmental Management Plan (EMP). A Social Impact Assessment (SIA) which includes the Resettlement Plan (SIA/RP) has also been prepared. The Resettlement Plan (RP) will be further validated and implemented during the implementation phase. Finalization of the RP is a condition for the commencement of civil works.
Physical and economic displacement is the key social impact. A Resettlement Planning Framework has been prepared as part of the SIA wherein the entitlement for every category of impact has been determined. The project will also have construction related environmental impacts, which will be addressed through appropriate mitigation measures delineated in the EMP. Besides there will be impacts on wetland and aquatic life along the road alignment. A Wildlife Management Plan will be put in place to mitigate the impacts. Construction of the bridge will be scheduled during the dry months and will not have any significant impact on the river or on the aquatic life in the river.
Stakeholder consultations including those with the Project Affected People (PAPs) in the form of focused group discussions and interviews were held in the project area during the preparation of the EIA and SIA. They are documented in the SIA and the EIA.
A Grievance Redress Committee will be formed to address grievances from project-affected people (PAP) prior to project implementation. The procedure and details of the Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) are included in the EIA and SIA. A separate GRM for workers will also be established to address workplace related complaints.
The SIA and EIA in English have been disclosed since October 9 and October 11, 2020 respectively, on the websites of MRTB and AIIB. The Executive Summaries of the EIA and SIA in Bengali have also been disclosed on the same websites and made available in hard copy in the Project area.
People’s Republic of Bangladesh
Md. Shahriar Kader Siddiky
Secretary, Economic Relations Division, Ministry of Finance
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