DHAKA, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh has signed two financing agreements totaling 525 million U.S. dollars with the World Bank to improve connectivity and climate resilience through building, maintaining, and improving roads and rural bridges that could benefit more than 100 million people.
The 425-million-U.S.-dollar "Operation for Supporting Rural Bridges Program" will improve connectivity and climate resilience in 19 coastal districts, said the Washington-based lender in a statement on Thursday.
It will also support existing efforts by the government to plan, design, and manage rural bridges through the rehabilitation of at least 29,000 meters of bridges, and build another 20,000 meters of new bridges in 61 districts across Bangladesh. The program will create jobs by generating about 5.5 million person-days of employment.
According to the statement, the 100 million additional financing to the "Second Rural Transport Improvement Project," also signed Thursday, will help support the rehabilitation of 1,433 km of sub-districts and Union roads that were damaged from the floods and heavy rainfall of 2017, and the maintenance of almost 6,000 km of rural roads in 26 districts. The project will also promote community road safety campaigns and road safety measures for public and private transport users in light of increasingly heavy traffic on rural roads.
