Dhaka, Dec. 7 -- The Planning Commission has returned a project proposal submitted by the ICT Division that aimed to provide reliable high-speed broadband connectivity to 39 million people and expand digital public services to boost annual ICT export capacity to $5.0 billion.

Citing excessive cost estimates, the commission recommended revising and resubmitting the "Digital Service Transformation for Access and Resilience (D-STAR)" project by dropping certain items, reducing allocations in specific heads, and providing detailed cost breakdowns where necessary.

The recommendations emerged from a Project Evaluation Committee (PEC) meeting held in late November to assess the D-STAR project, which was proposed at an estimated cost of Tk 31.7...