The interim government is placing renewed emphasis on eco-friendly and cost-effective projects that have been stalled for an extended period during the approval process.
Following the change in government, the Planning Commission has initiated the swift approval of two environmentally sustainable initiatives: the establishment of a jute bag manufacturing factory and the introduction of electric buses in Dhaka.
According to sources from the Planning Commission and the Ministry of Textiles and Jute, the innovative “Golden Bag” was developed in 2016 as a biodegradable and eco-friendly alternative to polyethylene bags. The product was introduced to the market on a trial basis in 2017.
However, it took six years for the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) to prepare a proposal for establishing a factory for the production of Golden Bags. The project proposal was submitted to the Planning Commission at the beginning of 2023, but it remained under review for another 18 months.
Finally, on September 26, the project is set to be submitted to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) for final approval following a review by the Project Evaluation Committee.
Mobarok Ahmed Khan, the inventor of the Golden Bag and currently the chief scientific advisor at BJMC, noted that the previous government’s shortcomings contributed to the lengthy process of preparing the project proposal after the bag’s invention.
“Now the approval process has been revived, but there is uncertainty about whether the proposed factory will actually materialize,” he remarked.
Khan also expressed optimism about the project’s potential, mentioning that various countries have shown interest in the Golden Bag. He suggested that private sector involvement in production could be feasible, though it would require supportive government policies.
In the proposed project, BJMC has suggested establishing a pilot factory in Demra, on the premises of Latif Bawany Jute Mills, with an investment of 1 billion taka for Golden Bag production. The goal is to achieve limited-scale commercial production, with an estimated output of 1,500 tons of Golden Bags annually as an alternative to plastic packaging, producing an average of 5 tons of polymer bags per day.
Electric Buses Initiative
The Planning Commission is also working swiftly to approve a project by the Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) to purchase 12 air-conditioned electric buses.
The proposed initiative entails an investment of approximately 498.7 million taka for these 12 buses, with each bus costing about 29.5 million taka. The establishment of two charging stations is projected to cost around 84 million taka. A meeting of the Project Evaluation Committee will take place on Monday to discuss this proposal.
Officials from the Planning Commission indicated that projects with budgets under 500 million taka can receive approval at the ministerial or advisory level without needing to go through ECNEC. This streamlines the approval process for such projects.
They further noted that during the previous administration, there were objections from the Planning Commission regarding various costs associated with a larger electric bus project proposal. For instance, in 2018, a plan to procure 340 electric buses with funding from Korea was submitted, involving significant expenses that raised concerns.
BRTC Director Colonel Mohammad Mobarak Hossain Majumdar stated that proposals for acquiring electric buses with foreign funding will remain in the pipeline. “BRTC has initiated plans to procure buses using government funding to meet the rising demand,” he said.
Currently, BRTC operates a fleet of 1,350 buses, but officials indicate that this number is insufficient to meet the growing public transportation needs. With 800 buses nearing the end of their operational lifespan and a projected total of just 550 functional buses by 2025, the urgency for acquiring new vehicles is critical.
The new project proposal aims to transform at least 30% of the transport fleet to electric vehicles by 2030. Moreover, diesel and petrol buses are expected to be phased out globally by that year, and automobile manufacturers will cease the production of diesel engine vehicles after 2035. Therefore, it is imperative for BRTC to incorporate electric vehicles into its fleet now to prevent a major crisis in public transport services.
