The $2.4 billion tender for the Padma Multi-purpose Bridge is likely to be invited late this month or in early April, sources in the Economic Relations Division said.

The communications ministry in cooperation with a donor group led by the World Bank almost completed chalking out bidders' pre-qualification criteria for building the bridge that will have both road and rail ways linking the south-western region of the country with the east.

Earlier this week, WB appreciated the government, in particular the communications ministry, and Bangladesh Bridge Authority for moving expeditiously with the preparatory work for the tender, and reiterated the donors' firm commitment for providing assistance.

Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain on Monday said that the document containing bidders' pre-qualification criteria will be sent to WB for final clearance within this week.

"We are hoping to float the tender any time now," he said.

The World Bank is now waiting to receive the minutes of a meeting between the donors and the finance ministry where key decisions were taken regarding the design of the bridge, and the procurement methods for its construction.

The decisions include that the proposed Padma Bridge will comprise rail and road ways; the rail track and related viaducts, and other facilities will be built linked with a project for extending the railway to the country's southwest region; and the contract for constructing the main bridge will be awarded through a single international competitive bidding.

There will be two stages to the bidding process, with a limited first stage based on the design prepared by design consultants.

According to the communications ministry's proposal, the bridge will be 6.15 km long, and will be constructed by December 2013. The bridge will connect 19 districts of the south-western part of the country with the eastern part including the capital, and it will be linked with the Asian Highway.

Of the $2.4 billion financing, different development partners have agreed to co-finance about $2.2 billion, of which the WB will provide $1.2 billion, Asian Development Bank $550 million, Islamic Development Bank $130 million, Japan International Cooperation Agency $300 million, and Abudhabi Fund $31.4 million.

Police Superintendent Mizanur Rahman who was closed to the headquarters last month on charges of attempting to grab other peoples' farmlands in Gopalganj, had some other alleged nefarious operations as well, according to the Police Headquarters sources.

A Chittagong based fertiliser trader on March 1 filed a written allegation with the inspector general of police (IGP) against Mizanur, saying the SP had forced him to pay Tk 11.5 lakh, with threats of putting him in 'crossfire', the sources said.

Mizanur's wife owns a medium sized fertiliser production company Mollah NPKS Ltd, but Mizanur himself mainly runs the business, flouting government service rules, the sources added.

The company has two factories, one at Rayerbagh and the other at Fatullah, both on the outskirts of the capital.

The complainant, Omar Faruq, said in the written allegation that he used to be a distributor of Mollah NPKS fertiliser in exchange for a 20 percent commission per sack.

In 2008 he received 400 sacks of fertiliser from Mollah NPKS, but found that the fertiliser was of very bad quality, and since then he was asking Mizanur to take back the supplied bad fertiliser, Faruq alleged in the complaint.

But instead of taking back the supplied fertiliser, Mizanur started to threaten Faruq with 'crossfire' if the latter did not pay a demanded sum of Tk 25 lakh for the goods, the written complaint says, adding that Mizanur also claimed he was a relative of the prime minister, and could do anything he wanted.

Finally fearing for his own life, Faruq deposited three cheques of a total Tk 11.5 lakh to Mizanur's bank account, until which the SP had been harassing Faruq using police forces of different districts, according to the complaint. Mizanur even had Faruq tortured in Bagerhat Sadar police station, alleges the written complaint.

‘When Mizanur Rahman was the SP of Faridpur in April last year, his factory manager filed a false case against me with Jatrabari police in Dhaka accusing me of cheating.’

‘Jatrabari police came to Chittagong, arrested me from my Double Mooring residence, and took me to Dhaka,’ Omar Faruq told media sources yesterday adding, ‘when, he was the SP of Bagerhat, another case was filed against me by one of Mizan's junior police officers, with the Sadar police station, accusing me of fertiliser black marketing.’

"After the Bagerhat case was filed, police again picked me up from my Chittagong residence and took me to Bagerhat. Mizan threatened me with crossfire, if I wouldn't pay him 25 lakh taka as the price for the fertiliser he had supplied me, although the actual price of the supplied goods was 2 lakh 80 thousand taka," Faruq said.

Faruq also said he waited so long to file the complaint in fear of Mizan's power, and found the courage to file it only after preliminary action had been taken against the cop.

IGP Noor Mohammad confirmed that he received Faruq's complaint, adding that he received various other allegations against the SP as well.

"We already told the home ministry that he should be suspended after the Police Headquarters found proof of his various irregularities including abuse of power," the IGP told media yesterday about the police department's position regarding Mizan.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) on Tuesday approved a project granting Tk 15 crore for rural infrastructure development work in each respective constituency.

The project of Tk 4,691 crore has been taken to carry out rural infrastructure development works in the constituencies of lawmakers ‘irrespective of party affiliation.’

Ecnec at a meeting approved a total of 10 projects, to be implemented at a cost of Tk 7,844 crore. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina chaired the meeting.

The projects include one for procuring 300 single decker CNG buses for Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation at a cost of Tk 243 crore for plying on the Dhaka city routes.

The tenure of the Tk 4,691 crore project titled ‘project for rural infrastructure development on priority basis’ is from March 2010 to June 2014.

The main works to be done under the project are 1,000 km road improvement in upazillas, 5,100 km village road development, 2,370 km union road development, construction of bridges and culverts on village roads of 49,500 metre.

Planning Minister AK Khandker said the project has been taken for rural development following the lists provided by the lawmakers.

He said MPs and lawmakers from all parties submitted proposals and the project has been taken accordingly. No discrepancy was made on political consideration.

The planning minister said the lawmakers would not be given any money in cash, as it would be done through the Local Government Engineering Department in line with the MPs' proposals.

The 300 CNG buses would be imported with Korean soft loan. The planning minister said the loan has been taken with easy terms and with an interest rate of 0.5 percent.

AK Khandker also said the prime minister has directed to reintroduce the double decker BRTC buses on the city routes to ease traffic jam. Presently, 263 double decker buses are lying out of order.

Expressing dissatisfaction at this, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said if necessary the BRTC buses would be given subsidy to put them on the roads again.

A Dhaka court on Wednesday asked the CID to submit by April 24, the probe report of the Pilkhana carnage case at the BDR Headquarters on February 25-26 last year.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate AKM Enamul Haque passed the order as the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Special Superintendent of Police Abdul Kahar Akand, also the investigation officer of the case, failed to submit the probe report by Wednesday.

The CID has so far arrested 2247 BDR soldiers and civilians including former BNP lawmaker Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu and Awami League leader Torab Ali.

Of the accused, 2161 had earlier been remanded and 526 had given confessional statements.