📋 Tender Overview
Project ID: P172499
Region: South asia
Commitment Amount: Us$ 137.27 million
Implementing Agency
Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Shipping, Ministry of Finance
Development Objective
The Project Development Objective is to increase climate resilience and navigation capacity along the Jamuna River.
It is important to note that the Jamuna is a section of one of the major rivers in the world, its entire length is the 15th longest, and it is part of the third largest river system in terms of discharge.26It originates in China as the Tsangpo River, flows through India as the Brahmaputra River, and then dissects Bangladesh from north to south until it meets the Padma-Ganges River and the Meghna River before emptying into the Bay of Bengal (see figures 1). An estimated 50 percent of the households living in districts in the Jamuna River basin depend on agriculture and fisheries for their economic survival, compared to about 27 percent of the households nationwide. 16.The Program’s economic potential is high. Given it size, natural resource wealth,and undeveloped status, the Jamuna River has enormous economic potential and its benefits appear to exceed those of other BDP2100 projects as explained below. (a)Flood and land erosion control.The Jamuna River is prone to land erosion and severe flooding.A study estimates that subsequent costs to cope with such disasters could add up to around US$1,250–2,000 per year per household in the most affected areas within the basin, stemming from relocations, land loss, and crop loss.27Reducing these disaster costs is deemed especially important from the poverty alleviation perspective, given that the districts in the Jamuna River basin are some of the poorest in Bangladesh with 37 percent of poverty rate, higher than the national average of 25 percent. Furthermore, stronger flood and land erosion control is expected to have a positive impact on economic growth in the basin. With the effect of climate change expected to exacerbate land erosion and flooding in the Jamuna River, investments in control measures should be a crucial part of the country’s climate adaptation efforts.(b)IWT.Transformational economic benefits from improved IWT are threefold:(i)Regional trade and growth.The upper Jamuna River cannot accommodate vessels loading more than 500 tons during the dry season due to the lack of channels of adequate depth. It is estimated that the current cargo movements of about 3.5 MTPA28between India and Bangladesh could be increased to 11.5 MTPA, if navigation channels are year-round and well maintained29(see figures 1 and 2). This figure only considers about 79 MTPA of cargo moving into northeastern India and would be much larger if cargo movements into Bhutan and Nepal are included. (ii)Logisticscost.The modal shift from road and
