99th Composite Brigade (Bangladesh)

The 99th Brigade otherwise known as "99 Composite Brigade" is a brigade formation of the Bangladesh Army. It was raised per the project "Establishment of 99 Composite Brigade for Safety and Security of Padma Multipurpose Bridge" and army development project "Forces Goal 2030".

History
On 19 September 2013 Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina raised the flag of newly established 99 Composite Brigade at Army Aviation Hanger. The flag 58 East Bengal, 34 BIR and 20 Engineering Construction Battalion were hoisted on the same day.

The unit would need around 600mn taka ($7.5mn) annually which will be allocated from the fund of the army.

On 2014 army sought 326-acre land & Tk 17,740 million over four years to build the security installations for the bridge on both sides of the mega infrastructure.

ECNEC approved the project named "Establishment of 99 Composite Brigade for Safety and Security of Padma Multipurpose Bridge" on 115 acres of land on both the sides involving Taka 7,500 million on 13 October 2015.

Functions

 * Implementation of the Padma Bridge project.
 * Maintain security of the Padma Bridge.
 * Oversee construction of the Padma bridge.
 * Check for corruption.
 * Discourage graft mongering firms and their officials.

Formation
The 99 Composite Brigade comprises one Engineering Construction Battalion and two infantry battalions (one from East Bengal Regiment and another from Bangladesh Infantry Regiment). Soldiers and officers of the brigade were drawn from other units of the army.

The components of the 99 Composite Brigade are


 * 20 Engineering Construction Battalion
 * 58 East Bengal Regiment
 * 34 Bangladesh Infantry Regiment

The 2200+ brigade consists of 109 commissioned officers (ECB-27, Infantry-82) and 2223 non-commissioned officers (ECB-825, Infantry-1398) of the army. They will use 122 vehicles & 2479 arms. Brigadier General Shah Noor Jilani (PSC) is the current commander of the brigade.