THE parliamentary standing committee on Road Transports And Bridges Ministry has expressed its concern over the delay of upgrading Dhaka-Chittagong highway into four lanes. The committee has also recommended actions against the defaulting contractors, reported an English national daily on Thursday. Apprehension of the parliamentary committee for dilly-dallying of the concerned authorities ¾ departmental officials in particular and the contractors seems genuine. The watchdog body pointed fingers at another extension of time schedule of the 4-lane project that was scheduled to be completed by December this year. The project earlier got two-time extensions.
The ‘Dhaka-Chittagong 4-Lane Project’ was initiated in 2006 to upgrade the highway in three years with a cost of Tk 2,382 crore, but successive governments had failed to implement the scheme in scheduled time-frame. In January 2010, the government signed deals with a Chinese engineering company and two Bangladeshi firms to widen and upgrade the highway. The project finally moved in early 2011. But at the very inception, the project stumbled at removing illegal structures along the highway and collecting earth for land-filling. The project work also suffered due to the political turmoil impasse in 2013. Besides, various unsubstantiated excuses also delayed the work progress repeatedly. In fact, some 192-kilometres of the 4-Lane Project almost remained stalled for nearly three years due to inept consultancy and frequent change of the Project Director.
The parliamentary committee found that only 50 to 60 percent of the work has so far been completed. As a result, the project expenditure had escalated significantly because of the delay putting an economic burden on the national exchequer. In arithmetical terms, 60 percent of the estimated project cost has been incurred to get only 49 percent of the work done.
Known as the economic lifeline of Bangladesh, the Dhaka-Chittagong highway caters to more than 80 percent of the country’s exports and imports worth $55 billions. The highway now should have the capacity to handle at least four times more traffic than its existing ability. This commercial artery between Dhaka and Chittagong, the commercial capital of the country needs to be overhauled immediately with the implementation of 4 lanes for faster movement of both passengers and goods between the port city and the capital.
So, we share the concern of the parliamentary committee and advise the government to take immediate steps to quicken the process of completing the 4-Lane Project without further time-extension. Any apathy to this regard would simply be considered as an enormous burden on the economy blocking normal growth of the export-import business of the country. The economy cannot afford any further loss because it has by now paid enough as the cost of inefficiency of the corrupt and inept officials of the government.
