Over four years have already gone by before the scheduled start of construction; the government’s authority concerned now moves to revise the Dhaka-Ashulia Elevated Expressway project mainly for extending time and cost. The construction work of this mega project was supposed to begin in 2017 and complete by June 2022. The agency concerned has recently requested the Planning Commission (PC) for revising the project by granting four more years to complete the entire works, insiders say.
According to a news report on Sunday, the Bridges Division signed a commercial contract with a Chinese company, CMC, over four years ago for building the overhead motorway on the most congested transport corridor to the capital, but the project works couldn’t be started yet. The division under the big-budget road transport and bridges ministry has recast its project with the cost hike in major components of the original Tk 169.01 billion expressway project, meant for leapfrogging perennial traffic impasse at the crossroads on northbound routes in the capital. Sources at the Bangladesh Bridges Authority said, the agency has now sought Tk 6.56 billion in additional funds for major nine components of the project and four more years to complete the works. Unfortunately, so long the Bridges Division has failed to start the construction work of the project. Now it is seeking revision after so many years.
Delays in state-run project completion coupled with their unavoidable cost escalation were never a new phenomenon in Bangladesh. However, little has been done over the years to come out of these menaces, mostly man-made. The projects also incur higher costs. Mentionable, three projects — Dhaka Elevated Expressway, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and Dhaka-Ashulia Elevated Expressway – were taken up to ensure smooth transportation of people of the country. Now fates of those projects are uncertain with their cost increasing because of delay in project completion. The contract was signed with the Chinese firm nearly four years back in 2017, but now the contractor is claiming higher funds for its construction works due to price hike of different construction materials. PC officials, however, said they are scrutinizing the revised project proposal. If they find okay, then they will recommend revision by the ECNEC.
It is no short of a mystery — why our government is repeatedly failing to draw lessons from its inept handling of development projects — stretching for years on end? Time has come to wake up.
