The World Bank has approved an additional $292 million for two ongoing projects in Bangladesh to improve infrastructure and education in the country, the bank said Wednesday. Of the total amount, $257 million will be given for infrastructure development under the Investment Promotion and Financing Facility (IPFF) Project and $35 million for bringing disadvantaged and poor children back to school under Reaching-Out-Of Children Project (ROSC), said a press release issued by the Bank's Dhaka office.

It said the additional financing to the ongoing IPFF project, amounting to about five times the original project that has been operating since 2006, will expand on the project's successful experience in the power sector. The bank extended more support to ROSC project, which helped to enroll over 500,000 out-of-school children, with high incidence of poverty, since 2004 through more than 15,000 learning centres in 60 sub-districts of the country, Xinhua reported.

The additional fund will help students in these 60 sub-districts to complete the primary cycle, the bank said adding that it will also scale-up the ROSC project in about 30 more sub-districts, enrolling an additional 250,000 out-of-school children. The credits from the International Development Association, WB' s concessionary arm, have 40 years to maturity with a 10-year grace period and they carry a service charge of 0.75 percent.