The deadline for the completion of the Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover project has been extended yet again, with its cost going up by 58 percent.
Construction was scheduled to finish by December 2015, but until June last year only 54 percent of work had been completed and half of the allotted fund had been spent.
The Planning Commission has proposed extending the project by another eighteen months. A proposal to hike the cost of the project by Tk 4.46 billion along with the extended time limit is on Tuesday’s agenda of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) meeting to be chaired by the prime minister.
If the proposal is cleared, the construction firm handling the job will get until June 2017 to complete the work. The project cost will go up from Tk 7.72 billion to Tk 12.18 billion. The 8.25-kilometre flyover is being built in three parts – from Moghbazar to Tejgaon, from Kakrail to Rampura and from Mouchak to Banglamotor.
One of the reasons for the cost going up is a 450-metre extension-from the FDC entrance to Hotel Sonargaon in Karwan Bazar. The proposal cites installation of earthquake resistant technologies, like pot bearings and shock transmission units, for the rise in cost.
It also said that the cost of piling works went up to avoid harming the underground utility supply ducts for gas, electricity, water and fibre optic cables. Approved in 2011, the construction work of the project started in 2013 and since then the project’s tenure has been extended twice.
The Saudi Fund for Development and the OPEC Fund for International Development is financing the project.
Development agencies were supposed to fund Tk 5.72 billion, but now they have agreed to increase it to Tk 7.76 billion. Meanwhile, the government has also increased its financial commitment for the project from Tk 2 billion to Tk 4.42 billion.
