The government on Tuesday approved a pilot project on tuna fishing in the Bay of Bengal with a provision of foreign training of officials amid criticism that the public fund is being wasted in the name of such training. According to the project proposal of the livestock and fisheries ministry, three teams would visit foreign countries to get trainings on the tuna fishing at a cost Tk 73.38 lakh. The Tk 63-crore project was approved in a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council presided over by prime minister Sheikh Hasina virtually. The project with foreign tours was taken amid growing calls to end such practice by bureaucrats due to the country’s economic woes caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. Ministry officials said that three long-liner fishing vessels would be procured and operated and tuna and other pelagic fishes would be caught under the project. After the meeting, planning minister MA MAnnan told reporters that the tuna fishing project was a highly significant’ one and would be implemented in the Bay of Bengal area in Chattogram. He said that the ministry was forced to take such a project as the private sector businesses had not responded to repeated calls of the government to catch tuna in the Bay following the settlement of maritime boundary disputes with India and Myanmar. Ministry officials said that the private sector businesses lacked logistics and manpower for tuna fishing in the deep sea and no bank was interested to give loans for such ventures. Describing the overwhelming demand and popularity of tuna in developed countries, including Japan, Mannan hoped that the implementation of the project would help tentative private sector to go for tuna fishing. He said that the ECNEC approved a total of seven projects, including seven new, with an involvement of Tk 3,461.97 crore. He said that the Roads and Highways Department would widen a road at Ramgarh upazila in Khagrachari by 2022 at a cost of Tk 845.53 crore, of which Tk 581.20 crore would come from the second Indian Line of Credit. Mannan said that once the road was widened, it would help transport of goods to Tripura in India. Recently, transhipment of Indian goods was allowed through Bangladesh to Tripura from West Bengal via the sea port in Chattogram and the Akhaura land port on a trial basis. The road widening project is expected to allow Indian transhipment cargos to go through the corridor and cut down the distance between the sea port and Tripura. Answering a question, Mannan said that the project would be a win-win one for both India and Bangladesh as the trade and commerce between the countries, especially between Tripura and Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar, would get a boost. He said that a proposal for setting up a border haat at Ramgarh was also under active consideration. The ECNEC also approved another project of upgrading of the Daudkandi-Goalmari-Srirayerchar (Cumilla)-Matlab Uttar (Chengarchar) highway at Tk 524.37 crore. Other approved projects include replacing the narrow and risky and old concrete bridges and bailey bridges with new concrete bridges on the highways under Khulna Roads Zone at Tk 526.42 crore, protecting Dhulia lunch terminal under Baufal upazila in Patuakhali and Durgapasha under Bakerganj upazila in Barishal from the river erosion of Tentulia at Tk 712.21 crore, removing water logging at Kapotakshya River (2nd phase) at Tk 531.07 crore and revision of emergency multi-sector Rohingya crisis response project, (1st revised,) at Tk 261.31 crore.