Dhaka: The National Economic Council (NEC) on Tuesday approved a Taka 1,65,000 crore Revised Annual Development Programme (RADP) for the current fiscal year (FY19) keeping highest priority on the transport sector.

The approval came from a NEC meeting held at its conference room with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair, reports the BSS.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Planning Minister MA Mannan said the revision to the ADP was made considering availability of local resources, foreign financing and considering the overall macroeconomic situation.

The NEC meeting also approved a Taka 9,620 crore RADP for the autonomous bodies and corporations and incorporating this portion, the overall size of RADP rose to Taka 1,74,620 crore.

Out of the main RADP size of Taka 1,65,000 crore, the Minister said that Taka 1,14,000 crore will come from the local sources, Taka 51,000 crore as project assistance while the rest of Taka 9,620 crore has been kept for the autonomous bodies and corporations.

Earlier in May, the NEC approved an Annual Development Programme (ADP) of Taka 1,73,000 crore for the current fiscal (2018-19).

Out of the original ADP size of Taka 1,73,000 crore for the current fiscal year, Taka 1,13,000 crore was supposed to come from the local sources while the rest Taka 60,000 crore from the foreign sources.

Mannan said the total number of projects in the RADP stood at 1916 including 1629 investment projects, some 154 technical assistance projects, 2 projects from the Japan Debt Cancellation Fund (JDCF) while the rest of 131 projects for the autonomous bodies and corporations.

The planning minister said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the meeting underscored the need for further strengthening the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) under the Ministry of Planning.

He said the Premier opined that it is now not possible for the IMED to physically monitor and evaluate all the development projects considering the size of the economy.

In this regard, she suggested setting up offices of IMED at all the divisional headquarters to boost its field operations side by side setting up its own technical unit or lab.

Besides, the NEC meeting noted that the manpower, vehicles and other equipment of the IMED should be enhanced.

Expressing satisfaction over the utilization rate of the development projects, Mannan said the Prime Minister said that there is further scope for improvement.

She also reiterated her directives to carry out development in the districts and upazilas in line with the master plan side by side avoiding as far as possible arable lands, water bodies and ponds in case of any development work.

Besides, the Prime Minister asked the authorities concerned to ensure providing Project Completion Report at the end of a project, prioritizing recruitment of local experts and consultants for development works, ensuring that the project directors remain at their sites while one project director should not remain in charge of more than one project. She also stressed conducting area-wise zoning to mark the industrial, commercial, educational and residential areas.

Answering a question, the planning minister said he was hopeful of attaining cent percent implementation rate of the RADP in the current fiscal year.

According to the RADP, the transport sector received the highest allocation in the RADP with Taka 38,040.04 crore which is 23.05 percent of the overall RADP allocation.

The power sector received the 2nd highest allocation of Taka 23,225.36 crore which is 14.08 percent of the RADP while the physical planning, water supply and housing sector received the 3rd highest RADP allocation of 12.35 percent or Taka 20,377.84 crore.