Disruption of foreign funding threatens promising railway projects, as gov’t explores other options

A disruption of foreign funding is putting two railway projects in Bangladesh at risk of not being completed.

The railway projects, which come as part of the Belt and Road infrastructure projects in Bangladesh, saw a halt following Bangladesh’s reassessment of the programs and lowering their costs after it had found that the cost was much higher than what it should have been.

The Chinese withdrew funding the projects following the government’s announcement. China had agreed to provide Bangladesh with loans to fund up to 85% of the project on the condition that Chinese companies must be given the tender for the railway projects.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), has shown interest in funding one of the projects.