The Asian Development Bank has awarded three of its best performing project teams for the year 2015 in Bangladesh to promote efficient project implementation.

Oleg Tonkonojenkov, deputy country director of the ADB's Bangladesh Resident Mission, presented the awards to the winning teams at a ceremony in Dhaka on Wednesday.

The winning projects are Secondary Education Sector Investment Programme (SESIP) (tranches 1 and 2), executed by Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education; Second and Third Urban Governance and Infrastructure Improvement Projects, executed by the Local Government Engineering Department; and Power System Expansion and Efficiency Improvement Investment Programme (tranche 1), executed by the North West Power Generation Company, the ADB said in a statement.

The Second Crop Diversification Project, executed by the Department of Agricultural Extension; and City Region Development Project, and Sustainable Rural Infrastructure Improvement Project executed by the Local Government Engineering Department won special recognition for continued excellence in performance.

“The project/programme teams were selected for results delivery, effective project implementation, efficiency, efforts to empower women, transparency, and other criteria,” Tonkonojenkov said.

The best project team recognition programme was initiated in 2001, and has been a regular annual exercise by ADB to promote development effectiveness of ADB-assisted projects in Bangladesh.

The SESIP programme, with the first and second tranches getting $90 million and $185 million ADB loans respectively, is supporting the government's reform of secondary education, it said.

Infrastructure, teaching materials, teacher training, and stipend, among others, are being provided to promote education quality, equity and efficiency.

The second and third Urban Governance and Infrastructure Improvement Projects, which got $87 million and $125 million ADB loans respectively, have been helping selected municipalities to improve infrastructure, other services, governance and inclusive participation to make them more livable.

Both the projects adopted a performance-based fund allocation system linking efficiency to availability of project funds, the ADB added.

The Power System Expansion and Efficiency Improvement Investment Programme, which got $185 million ADB loan for the first tranche, and $700 million ADB loan for the entirety, is working to boost power production, and transmission and distribution facilities.

The initiative has added over 235MW power production capacities by converting four single cycle gas fired power plants to combine cycle plants at Khulna, Baghabari, Sylhet and Shahjibazar. It has also constructed 180km 132 kV transmission lines and four 133/32 kV substations, it said.

Overall, the programme will connect 4.5 lakh households to the power grid and reduce carbon emissions by almost 2.5 million tonnes per year when it is completed in 2018. Over 200 solar energy-driven irrigation pumps will be established, benefitting around 4,000 poor farming families, the ADB added.

As of 2015, ADB's cumulative lending to Bangladesh stood at $17.2 billion for 259 loans, $244.55 million for 411 technical assistance projects, and $787.10 million for 35 grants.

As of May 10, 2016, ADB's projects under implementation for Bangladesh comprise 82 loans and grants amounting to $6 billion; and 28 technical assistance projects amounting at $29.4 million, the statement said.