Two ministry officials confirmed about the letter.
This correspondent could not reach Pronab Kumar Ghosh, additional secretary (development and planning), and Salim Reza, secretary, over the phone. Text messages sent to them were also not replied to.
The ministry letter mentioned that an English daily last month reported on the long delay in signing of a loan from China for a project to turn Joydebpur-Ishwardi section into dual-gauge double lines. The report quoted a top BR official.
"Chinese embassy notified the Economic Relations Division about the matter. Chinese embassy in its letter mentioned that no information can be leaked to the media as per the 'work discipline' of the G-to-G [government to government] projects," reads the letter.