According to the Bank’s website, the objective of this project is to increase access to resilient urban services and promote coordinated urban and regional development planning and investments in selected economic growth corridors.

The selected corridor is along 950 kilometers of highway from Cox Bazaar in the southeast to Panchagarh in the northwest region of the country. It traverses the recently completed Padma Multi-Purpose Bridge and the important urban centers of Panchagarh, Dinajpur, Bogura, Kushtia, Jashore, Dhaka, Chattogram and Cox’s Bazaar. The corridor was selected based on its potential for: (i) increased climate resilience of economic production hubs; (ii) strengthening urban-rural linkages; (iii) regional economic growth, investment opportunities and job creation; and (iv) poverty reduction.

The project development objectives (PDO) of RUTDP are: (i) to increase access to climate resilient urban infrastructure and services in selected clusters, and (ii) to strengthen urban management capacity in selected urban centers.

Environmental and social impacts of sub-projects are expected to be minimal except in some of the Nodal cities for infrastructure for adapting with climate change and natural disasters with possible implications for the cluster, such as regional bus terminals, community centers, and markets that may have pronounced impacts. Environmental concerns encompass potential water pollution from construction runoff, inadequate drainage systems leading to climate change impacts, and air pollution during construction. However, these impacts are generally temporary and limited to the construction phases and will be mitigated per the provisions of the ESMF and ESIA. Solid and liquid waste management from the infrastructure such as kitchen markets and bus terminals will require proper collection and disposal during operation phase. Environmental risk has been assessed as Substantial. Social risks are also substantial due to the location and scale of civil works for these small and medium size infrastructure. A few of these may involve land acquisition (using counterpart funds) of varied scales and involuntary resettlement of project affected people (PAPs) largely with economic displacement, especially in the Nodal cities. Even though construction workers will be plentiful at the Pourashavas, the social risks also account for unavoidable influx of non-local laborers and the associated risk of gender-based violence (GBV) including sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) and sexual harassments (SH) at works sites and in the neighboring communities. Based on the Bank's SEA/SH Risk Assessment Tool for civil works investments and the project's SEA/SH risks are assessed as "Moderate."

Investments for revenue generation and improvement of cost recovery approaches may affect citizens of all economic classes, if not inclusive. Presence of ethnic minority communities with distinct characteristics of indigenous peoples is not likely in the urban areas and their lands will be avoided for any civil works at any other locations in adjacent rural areas. Efforts will be made to minimize land acquisition and physical displacement of people by using existing available land, where possible.

A proposed shorter maturity loan credit in the amount of sdr 72.11 million (us$95 million equivalent);

A proposed scale-up window shorter maturity loan credit in the amount of sdr155.60 million (us$205 million equivalent);

A proposed scale up window loan in the amount of us$100 million.

World Bank

Kwabena Amankwah-Ayeh
Senior Urban Development Specialist

Zhiyu Chen
Senior Urban Economist

Amadou Ba
Senior Agriculture Economist

Borrower/Client/Recipient

People’s Republic of Bangladesh

Implementing Agencies

Local Government Engineering Department, Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Coopera
Shaikh Muzakka Zaher, Additional Chief Engineer, LGED, muzakka_zaher@yahoo.co.uk
Md. Monjur Ali, Superintending Engineer, monjur1967@yahoo.com

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

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ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF THE WORLD BANK

The World Bank Inspection Panel is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by a World Bank-financed project. If you submit a complaint to the Inspection Panel, they may investigate to assess whether the World Bank is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. You can contact the Inspection Panel or submit a complaint by emailing ipanel@worldbank.org. Information on how to file a complaint and a complaint request form are available at: https://www.inspectionpanel.org/how-to-file-complaint