Kazi Zahidul Hasan :The contractors have so far done only 45 per cent construction work of the 8.25-kilometer Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover till October this year. They have now sought additional time to complete the project.The snail pace of the construction work has already increased the woes of the city dwellers who are travelling through the areas everyday. A further delay in project implementation would worsen their sufferings, observer fear. On February 16 last year, the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) inaugurated the Tk 7,73 crore project officially, setting two years time-frame for its completion. The Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) is financing Tk 375.25 crore in the project while OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) Tk 196.98 crore and the government of Bangladesh the remaining Tk 200.47 crore.”We are going to miss the deadline as the contractors have so far completed only 45 per cent work of the project,” Nazmul Alam, Project Director of the Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover told The New Nation on Thursday.He said the contractors have already prayed for extending the time-frame to complete the project and the authorities have also granted it.”The project was originally supposed to be completed by 24 months. But now it appears that it will take three to four more months. Hopefully, the Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover may be opened for traffic by June 2016,” he added. The Australian firm SMEC International and its three local associates, ACE Consultants Limited, SARM Associates Limited and Kranti Associates Limited, are working as consulting firms for the project.Besides, the Danish and Bangladesh joint venture firm, Simplex-Navana, and the Bangladesh-India joint venture firm, MCCC-4 ACL-ODC, are engaged in the construction work of the flyover project.The flyover has been designed to ease gridlock in eight intersections of the capital– Satrasta, FDC, Moghbazar, Mouchak, Malibagh, Shantinagar, Rampura Chowdhurypara and Ramna thana — where commuters spend hours every day.Nazmul Alam however said that it’s a big project and the timeframe that was fixed to complete the flyover was ambitious. The construction work of the flyover faces delay due to lack of coordination among the utility service providers in removing underground water, gas and sewerage pipelines and power and telephone cables, he said. “Removal of the pipelines took much time hindering piling work of the flyover project. Consequently, it created barrier on the way to implementation the project timely,” he mentioned.When asked, he said, everything is now going smoothly and there is no fund crisis to implement it.Nazmul Alam however admitted that the delay of the project’s construction was causing immense public sufferings in the form of traffic congestion, noise, dust and air pollution.
