The project will build on the gains of the first Urban Primary Health Care Project in Bangladesh and will cover all the six city corporations of Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi, Sylhet, and Barisal, and five municipalities of Bogra, Comilla, Sirajganj, Madhabdi and Savar.

A $30 million loan from ADB's concessional Asian Development Fund (ADF) will continue to contract out primary healthcare services to non-government organisations (NGOs) through partnerships established under the first Urban Primary Health Care Project.

The project will ensure that at least 30 percent of these preventive, promotive, and curative health services will target poor people earning less than Tk 700 per month. Nutritional supplements will also be given to severely malnourished women and children.

The project will support the construction of 64 health facilities, upgrading of four and purchase of 12 apartments or buildings for primary healthcare facilities in Dhaka.

Community-run latrines and community-based solid-waste disposal will be piloted to improve environmental health, and clinical waste management systems will be upgraded.

"The project will lead to health improvements that will boost productivity and learning at school, and make savings on out-of-pocket expenditure on healthcare," says Sekhar Bonu, an ADB health specialist.

"With women and children to constitute more than three quarters of those benefiting, child and maternal mortality will be reduced, thus helping Bangladesh achieve the Millennium Development Goals."

A $10 million grant, also from the ADF, will support various HIV/Aids and infectious disease control activities, $2.5 million of which will be for operating 24 HIV/Aids testing and counselling centres and $5 million for the control of reproductive tract and sexually transmitted infections (STI). The remaining $2.5 million is for marketing and knowledge campaigns for HIV/Aids, STI, and infectious disease control.

The total cost of the project is about $90 million, of which the United Kingdom's Department for International Development will contribute a $25 million grant, and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency will provide a $5 million grant, both to be administered by ADB.

The United Nations Population Fund will provide co-financing with a $2 million grant, and the government of Bangladesh will contribute the balance of $18 million.

ADB's loan, which covers one third of the total project cost, carries a 32-year term, including a grace period of eight years. Interest is charged at 1% per annum during the grace period and 1.5% per annum thereafter.

The local government division of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development, and Cooperatives is the executing agency for the project, with city corporations and municipalities serving as the implementing agencies. The project is due for completion in December 2011.