I agree that building airports and underground railways in every district is wasting money but building a highway reduces travel time and fuel costs, the villages along the highway get better access to markets etc. I do not agree to your point that the highway will benefit only India. Even ordinary Bangladeshis will be be benefited enormously even though they may not use "Heavy Trucks".
To give an example the distance between Delhi and Agra is almost equal to distance between Delhi and Jaipur but travel time between Delhi and Jaipur is 3 hrs as compared to 5 hrs between Delhi and Agra due a better expressway between Delhi and Jaipur and poor condition for Delhi Agra highway.
India will obviously try to have an oversight on the projects though I doubt it will be to this extent. When a bank gives a big load to a company a representative of the bank also sits on the board of the company to ensure that its investment is safe. This is similar to Indian oversight in the projects.
To give you idea... below are the total list of project to be done under the loan...
THE FOURTEEN PROJECTS
The first project is on procurement of six high-powered dredgers at $71.69 million. Of the dredgers, one will be used for dredging at Mongla Port while three for Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority and two for Bangladesh Water Development Board.
The second project is related to construction of an internal container river port at Ashuganj at a cost of $36.23 million. Bangladesh and India have recently signed an agreement under which Ashuganj in Bangladesh and Silghat in India have been declared ports of call.
These are mainly for india... n hardly will benefit bd.
The third project is to buy 10 broad gauge locomotive engines worth $31.55 million for Bangladesh Railway. The fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh projects are also related to Bangladesh Railway.
Some 125 broad gauge passenger coaches will be bought at a cost of $53.63 million under the fourth project, while 60 tank wagons for fuel oil transportation and two break vans at a cost of $8.85 million under the fifth project.
The sixth one is on buying 50 metre gauge flat wagons and five break vans at a cost of $4.55 million for Bangladesh Railway.
Mainly to facilitate indian transit by rail... even if you say some cases bd will use those... but what is the point of buying india only train??? To get the better product this should have been done under open tender to select the better product but the loan clause is India only...
Under the seventh project, two railway bridges -- 2nd Bhairab Bridge and 2nd Titas Bridge -- will be constructed, which will cost $120 million.
For transit of india....
The next five projects are related with road transport. The eighth one is to buy 300 double-decker buses for Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) at an estimated amount of $29.65 million.
Under the ninth project, 50 articulated buses would be bought for BRTC at a cost of $6.12 million.
As I said before it should have been done under open tender process... but this is just to facilitate indian companies as the term of the deal is 85% of the product should be of indian made... rest will be selected by indian contractor...
The 10th one is related to development of road communications for a land port. Under the project, Sarail-Brahmanbaria-Sultanpur-Akhaura-Senarbadi road will be constructed at a cost of $33.82 million.
To transport indian goods from chittagong port to NE india... hardly bd will use this route...
The 11th project is for construction of an overpass at Jurain rail crossing and a flyover at Malibagh rail crossing in Dhaka. These will cost $31.44 million.
Yes this is the only one needed for bd... but to select the best group this process should have been done through tender... but bd is unable to do this as the term of the loan is india only...
Project number 12 is purely on connectivity between Bangladesh and India. Under this project, a road will be constructed between Ramgarh and Sabroom [Tripura's southern border town] at a cost of $14.53 million.
To facilitate indian transit...
An amount of $150.86 million will be spent for the 13th project, which is for setting up power gridline between India and Bangladesh. Under the project, a 400KV grid inter-connection between Bheramara of Bangladesh and Baharamapur of India will be set up.
Partly useful for bd but mainly to extend indian mainland grid to NE india... as I said before it should have been done by open tender but this is also india only project...
The 14th project has four sub projects related to capacity building of Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institute (BSTI). Laboratories will be set up at a cost of $8.92 million to test foods, cement, brick and gold.
Should have been done in an open tender but will be done by india only companies... n indian product quality is so low that even indian institue equivalent to BSTI import their equipment from switzerland or germany... this was said by BSTI chairman.. he said if we had to buy low quality indian equipment it is better not to buy it...
So from where you got the idea... lots of high way and railway is going to be built and other blah blah blah...
Be realistic... just wondering whether India would agree to any loan such that where they will not have any say and most of the loan money will be used for india and must be from indian companies...