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Priority high, approach low

2 top highway projects go awry for lack of fund

M Abul Kalam Azad
Two high-priority highway development projects have totally lost momentum as the government released funds thinly and that too not on time. Both projects also suffered from bidding delays, exposing the inefficiency of the bureaucracy in implementing the projects.
The projects are the Dhaka-Chittagong highway widening project and the Joydevpur-Mymensingh highway wideningproject.
Work on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway began two and a half years ago. The highway was supposed to get two more lanes this year. This would have eased the huge tailbacks that have become a regular
phenomenon on the economic lifeline of Bangladesh.
Only 20 percent of the 192.30km highway has been widened so far.
Nobody knows when the highway will truly become a dual carriageway even though the deadline to finish the job has been deferred to December 2013 now, addingayear's delay.
The ruling Awami League in its election manifesto had promised to upgrade this highway, demonstrating how much the party cared about and valued this project.
However, problems have plagued the Tk 2,382 crore project from the very beginning. Flawed biddings led to tenders h e i n p c a n r o 11 e d twi c p s i n c p 2 00G Contractors were finally selected at the third bidding in 2009, but then the project went through another hiccup. The then Pakistani consultant demanded additional pay due to the delays. The government then appointed a new consultant, cancelling the contract with the Pakistani firm.
The project suffered delays due to frequent changes of its projector directors as well. So far, the communications ministry has appointed as many as six project directors.
Extortion and threats allegedly from local ruling party leaders have also disrupted work. Contractors have complained about the menace to the communications ministry and, at one stage, stopped work through abandoning their equipment.
The problems have been more or less resolved and work is now going on, albeit at a snail's pace.
The other project, the Joydevpur-Mymensingh highway widening project, has stumbled into an equally frustrating situation.
Launched in January, 2011, with a target of completion in three years, half the work was supposed to
have been done by now. In reality, though, only 13 percent of work has been done.
About 87km of the highway was supposed to be widened under the project, costing the state Tk 904 crore. Work on a 30km stretch has not started even after the tender for this portion's upgrade was cancelled.
The communication ministry, eight months after a contract was signed, could realise that the contractor's claim of a joint venture with a Ghinese company was actually a lie.
A fresh tender was floated recently but none in the ministry could say when the work would actually begin.
Meanwhile, the project cost has increased byTk400 crore.
Gonlractors of both projects claimed that they were not getting adequate funds to speed up work. So far, Tk 645 crore have been released for the Dhaka-Chittagong project and Tk 124 crore for the Joydevpur-Myme nsi ngh p roj ec t.
The amounts were less than half of what was supposed to be disbursed, they said.
At one stage, contractors of Dhaka-Chittagong suspended work due to the
fund crisis and resumed operations in June this year only after getting their dues.
The delays in completing the project will also raise the project’s cost. “There will be a Tk 350-400 crore price escalation due to the rise in the prices of construction materials,” a communications ministry official told The Daily Star, preferring anonymity.
This year the government allocated Tk 500 crore for the Dhaka-Ghittagong and Tk 140 crore for the Joydevpur-Mymensingh projects. But the communications ministry officials and the contractors have doubts whether the allocated money will eventually come through.
Acting Communications Secretary MAN Siddique was, however, very hopeful of speeding up the upgrade work. He claimed that the authorities had already overcome all the bottlenecks in the two projects.
"We had problems like funds shortage and dirt to fill the road but those have been solved. This year we have got more money than in past years,” he told The Daily Star.
"Now we are pushing the contractors to speed up their work so that the projects are completed on lime,” he added.