Secures Exclusive Rights to Carry out the Project
The Korean government announced on Nov. 12 that a Korean consortium has secured the exclusive rights to promote the construction of a new bridge over the Meghna River in Bangladesh.
The decision was made during a meeting of the Korea-Bangladesh joint consultative committee on infrastructure development.
The Korean consortium will build a 24-km-long bridge over the Meghna River in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. It consists of the Korea Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corp. (KIND), Daewoo Engineering & Construction, Hyundai Engineering & Construction, and Korea Expressway Corp. It will conduct a feasibility study and promote the project based on the exclusive rights.
The joint consultative body between the two countries was formed in April 2019 based on a memorandum of understanding between KIND and the Bangladesh Public-Private Partnership Agency (PPPA). It is intended to quickly and effectively move forward with the development of infrastructure in Bangladesh.
Since then, Korean companies have won priority rights to three projects worth US$9.2 billion, including the Dhaka Circular Railway project announced in January.
At the Nov. 12 meeting of the consultative body, the two countries agreed to promote the Meghna Bridge project worth US$1 billion as a cooperative project between the two countries.
The Meghna Bridge project will be carried out as a public-private partnership (PPP) project. The Korean consortium will be responsible for engineering, construction, finance, and operation based on a business contract with the Bangladeshi government.