China Major Bridge Engineering Company Limited (MBEC) has demanded a big amount from the government as compensation for the delay in completion of the Padma Bridge Project. So far the Chinese company has claimed Tk 600 crore compensation, citing 40 to 50 reasons, and in the meantime, the Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) has paid Tk 300 crore against the claim, as per our daily’s report.
They said the construction work of Padma Bridge has been delayed due to various reasons, including flaws in design, complexity in piling work, natural calamity and Covid-19 pandemic. In June 2014, the Bangladesh government awarded China MBEC a US$1.55 billion (Tk 12,133 crore) contract to build core structure of the Padma Bridge Project, which was to be completed in four years (December 18).Construction work of the much-hyped bridge started on December 7, 2014. The bridge’s pile drive work started in 2015. Then complication arose over piling of 22 pillars. Pillars could not be installed due to the soil structure in the bottom of the river. Besides, it took one and a half years to resolve the flaws in design. In 2020, the pace of bridge’s construction work came to a halt again due to the Covid-19 pandemic and prolonged flood.
If the claim for some compensation is because their equipment was sitting idle due to Coronavirus then it can be considered to be a logical claim. So all their claims have to be thought of in terms of merit. If the claims are sustainable then compensation can be claimed. But it is unclear why our authorities did not think of a force majeure clause to limit the compensation payable.
Definitely some of their claims like flaws in design and piling work complexity must be rethought or brought to arbitration. This is a project whose costs have tripled from the original Tk 10,162 crore. The extension of time and increase of costs will certainly curb the project’s economic benefits. The expenditure on the project will have to be covered by toll collection but it won’t be possible to cover the expenditure over decades. It would have been better if the government did a realistic cost benefit analysis to figure out the true returns from the project.
Padma Bridge has proved a money guzzler for the benefit of all involved. Corruption sharing is gainful. Padma Bridge will not be finished unless corruption sharing is stopped which is unthinkable under the present government.
