The government last night signed a Tk 8,708-crore river training deal for the Padma Bridge project with Sinohydro Corporation Ltd, which has already earned a bad reputation due to its delay in completing the Dhaka-Chittagong highway expansion project over the last four years.

The Chinese firm will deal with checking erosion, maintaining navigability and dredging more than 11-km area in the river near Jajira and three-km area at Mawa under a four-year agreement.

Project Director Shafiqul Islam and Deputy Chief Engineer of Sinohydro Lyu Liushel signed the agreement at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital.

River training is the second most expensive component of the government-financed $3 billion Padma Bridge Project. It

was the final agreement of the seven components of the project.

Sinohydro faced strong criticism for its pitiable performance in the Dhaka-Chittagong highway expansion project, which it had won in 2010 by submitting the lowest bid. However, it has been demanding additional money in violation of the contract which the government did not meet. The government rather has been putting pressure on the company to finish the job.

However, the Chinese firm started the expansion work in full swing only last month after bagging the river training job, sources in the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges said.

Earlier on November 4, the government had entered a Tk 383.15 crore deal with a joint venture of six companies for the supervision consultancy job of the Padma Bridge Project. Under the four-year deal, the joint venture led by Korean Expressway Corporation will supervise construction of the main bridge and river training work.

China Major Bridge Engineering Construction Company in June got the main bridge construction work for Tk 12,133 crore. It will build the bridge in four years.

The Bridges Division has paid the company 15 percent of the amount as mobilisation advance. The bidder has already started the preparatory work.

The Bangladesh Army was awarded the job of supervising Jajira and Mawa approach roads and the service area with the assistance of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology last year.

The costs of the approach roads, service area and the supervision work amount toTk 1,642 crore, ofwhich the

army will receive aroundTk 206 crore.

Construction of the Padma Bridge, a major electoral promise of the ruling Awami League, was delayed due to the World Bank’s cancellation of its $1.2 billion credit for the project in 2012 over allegations of a corruption conspiracy involving the Canadian company SNC Lavalin in appointing the supervision consultant.

The government later decided to construct the 6.15-km rail-and-road bridge with its own fund.

Though the bridge project expenses were estimated initially at Tk 20,507 crore, the costs have gone up to Tk 23,142 crore, according to Bridges Division officials.

Speaking at the signing ceremony yesterday, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader assured of maintaining transparency at every stage of the construction.