The report has mainly dealt with poor efficiency in project implementation which regularly add to cost over-run, but what is most evident is that political influence in contract award and use of poor quality construction materials remains largely responsible for cost over-run of projects in one hand and their poor quality on the other.
Surprisingly Bangladesh ranked 113th among Asian countries having poor roads and highways. It is only ahead of Nepal – the country where road building in hilly terrain is really expensive. Singapore comes out first in Asia and second globally in terms of quality road infrastructure. Japan and Taiwan ranked fifth and 11th. South Korea and Malaysia 14th and 20th. China ranked 39th globally. Road condition in India is improving and ahead of Thailand and Pakistan.
The World Bank report posted road construction cost in Bangladesh between $6.6m per kilometer for Rangpur-Hatikumrul four-lane highway to $11.9m for Dhaka-Mawa four-lane highway and $2.5m each for Dhaka-Chittagong and Dhaka-Mymensingh four-lane highways. But it cost only $1.1m to $1.3m per km in India and $1.3m-$1.6m in China. It is true that earth filling at low laying area is highly expensive in Bangladesh along with high cost of land acquisition. But when the cost comes about three to four times higher, it raises many questions particularly on misuse of money and embezzlement of fund.
In our view Bangladesh must review the high construction cost of roads and highways to plug the loopholes where it is causing the biggest waste. Misuse of fund in our mega infrastructure projects is open to public debate. Contractors are stealing money, political leaders are having their part and project officials who are mostly appointed on political consideration make money for them and for government leaders. We believe there is enough room to reduce the construction cost and save waste and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) should vigorously take the issue to plug the loopholes.
