B Mirror Report: The government has decided to purchase one crore liters of refined soybean oil to be sold at subsidized prices to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) Smart Family Cardholders to ensure the supply of edible oil to the low-income people of the country. This will cost 180 crore 85 lakh taka. At the same time, approval has been given to import 40 thousand tons of urea fertilizer from Saudi Arabia to ensure uninterrupted agricultural production, the cost of which is estimated at 191 crore 41 lakh 20 thousand taka.
The decision was taken at the second meeting of the Advisory Council Committee on Government Procurement for this year yesterday at the conference room of the Cabinet Division at the Secretariat.
The meeting, chaired by Finance Advisor Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed, approved a total of four purchase proposals from the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Industries and Road Transport and Highways Division.
According to sources at the meeting, in view of a proposal from the Ministry of Commerce, the government will procure 10 million liters of refined soybean oil from Sonargaon Seeds Crushing Mills Limited in Dhaka through an open tender (OTM) method locally. This will cost about 180 crore 85 lakh taka. The price of soybean oil per liter will be 180 taka 85 paisa.
In view of the proposal from the Ministry of Industries, the government will import 40 thousand tons of bulk granular urea fertilizer from Saudi Arabia’s SABIC Agri-Nutrients Company in the 16th lot of the 2025-26 fiscal year. This will cost about 191 crore 41 lakh taka. The price of fertilizer per ton will be 390 dollars.
In view of the proposal of the Road Transport and Highways Department, the Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) has been given the responsibility of providing commercial driver training (non-consultancy service) under the project titled ‘Bangladesh Road Safety’ jointly funded by the Government of Bangladesh and the World Bank. The cost of this work has been estimated at around Tk 230 crore 72 lakh under Package No. SP (BRTA) 04.
Another proposal of the Road Transport and Highways Department was for the construction of ‘Nalua-Baherchar Bridge’ along with approach road, service road, river management work, toll plaza, electro-mechanical and ancillary works on the Pandav-Payra River at the 27th kilometer of the Barisal (Dinarpul)-Lakshmipasha-Dumki road. The project is being implemented by the Department of Roads and Highways (DOH) with the joint funding of the Government of Bangladesh and the OPEC Fund.
