The World Bank has decided to engage anew in Bangladesh's Padma Multipurpose Bridge, following the steps taken by the country's government to address the evidence of corruption identified by the Bank. In a statement issued today following discussions between officials of the World Bank and the Bangladesh government in Washington, the Bank said that it has decided to engage again with 2.9 billion dollar Padma bridge project upon satisfactory implementation of the agreed measures by the Bangladesh Government. Earlier in June this year, the World Bank announced the cancellation of its 1.2 billion US Dollar loan for the project on the grounds of unsatisfactory response of the Bangladesh government to what it claimed as credible evidence of corruption related to financing of the bridge. Following this the Bangladesh government took steps to address the steps advised by the bank which included placing all public officials suspected of involvement in the corruption scheme on leave from Government resulting in the resignation of the earlier Minister of Communication Syed Abul Hossian.In addition to this, the World Bank said that the Bangladesh government has agreed to a series of measures as a pre-requisite for any renewed implementation which include new procurement arrangements with enhanced oversight, to ensure transparency and clean construction of the bridge, free and fair investigations by a team of the country's Anti Corruption Commission in an expeditious manner and also an independent External Panel to review the Government's investigation and report their findings to the Government and the World Bank. The World Bank had earlier agreed to provide 1.2 Billion US Dollar as the lead Financier of the project, while the Asian Development Bank Japan International Co-operation Agency and Islamic Development Bank which are the co-financiers of the project had agreed to provide over 610 million, 400 million and 140 million US dollars respectively for the project.