Badrul Ahsan :
Public sufferings in and around the Moghbazar-Mouchak areas will continue for longer period as the government has further extended the deadline of the 8.25 kilometre flyover project by 18 months.
Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on Tuesday approved the revised design of the flyover project with an extension of 18 months and increased cost of Tk 446.20 crore, raising the overall project cost to Tk 1,218.90 crore.
The approval was given at the ECNEC meeting held at the NEC conference room with ECNEC Chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
“We’ve extended the length of the flyover by 450 meters and brought a few structural changes to make it more effective,” said Planning Minister Mostafa Kamal at a briefing after the meeting.
He said, the ramp of the flyover will be extended to Sonargaon intersection which was earlier supposed to end at FDC level crossing.
The project timeframe has been extended till June 2017 as its length has been extended through redesigning. Last date of completion of the project has been over on December, 2015, sources said.
Officials involved in the LGED-implemented project said, sensing delays the project executers have moved to the authorities concerned for time extension with a substantial hike in the project cost and finally succeeded.
Although the time has been extended, the LGED authority is still in doubt of completing the project on the stipulated deadline, said the officials seeking anonymity.
They said, “As per our previous experience, the executors will now focus on partial completion of the mega development scheme within the new deadline, allowing traffic movement through the area on a limited scale.”
The officials said, responding to a petition from the executing companies, seeking redesign and more time with budgetary revision for the flyover, the ECNEC approved the revision of the Moghbazar-Mouchak Flyover Project.
However, the whole project is being implemented in three packages by two infrastructure development firms – Toma Construction & Company and joint venture firm Simplex-Navana.
Talking to The New Nation, senior engineer of the Toma Group Md. Ashraful Alam Shimul yesterday said that they could not make progress at an expected level because of underground utility lines of WASA, DPDC and Titas.
He blamed non-cooperation of the utility service providers, heavy pressure of traffic within the project areas, readjustment of piling spots, and delayed tender proceedings for major parts of the infrastructure for the inordinate delays.
Ashraful Alam said the group is now spending Tk 2.8 million as monthly salaries of its staff and employees who are almost sitting idle in underground lines in Moghbazar and Mouchak, which has already eaten up valuable time.
“A substantial hike in the expenses is required as price of construction materials has gone up globally and it has become difficult to finish the tasks by the stipulated time,” he said.
He said commuters cannot enjoy full benefits of the infrastructure if they complete development works under package 04 (Satrasta to Ramna) and 06 (Eskaton to Mouchak) as package 05 (Malibagh Chowrasta to Razarbagh and Shantinagar), where some key parts of package 04 and 06 will be linked, is scheduled to end in December, 2016.
However, according to him, in percentage terms, 70 per cent and 43 per cent works have been executed in those packages respectively.
When contacted, Project Director Nazmul Alam said they have further intensified their development works with an aim to complete the work within the latest time frame.
Aiming at lessening severe traffic congestion in the capital’s eight key intersections, the government on February 16, 2013 started constructing the flyover involving Tk 7.73 billion with a two-year timeframe.
But the largest portion of 3.93 km from Malibagh Chowrasta to Razarbagh and Shantinagar faced tender-related obstacles that caused a delay of more than one year.
The delayed works, however, made the roads in and around the project areas almost unusable for people passing through the areas in the form of squeezed movement, traffic congestion, sound and water pollution.
