Rejaul Karim Byron and Tuhin Shubhra Adhikary

Most of the mega development projects were already behind schedule before the pandemic. Then came several months of shutdown, deteriorating the situation to a great extent.

Moreover, allocation for the projects will be low in the coming fiscal year with 21.76 percent of the annual development budget, down from the current year’s 25 percent.

This has happened despite two new mega development projects being added to the 15 ongoing ones.

The coming fiscal year’s allocation will be Tk 44,640 crore for the 17 projects, down from this year’s Tk 52,758 crore for 15.

The coming year’s total development budget will be Tk 205,145 crore.

Officials failed to use the funds allocated in the current year for most of the 15 mega projects. And due to complications regarding foreign funds, absolutely nothing was spent for two of those projects, planning ministry officials said.

Poor planning, uncertainty over financing, and problems linked to land acquisition often result in missed deadlines, they said.

Tk 7,212 crore was allocated for Mass Rapid Transit-6 in last year’s Annual Development Programme (ADP). It was the second highest amount for a single project. In the revised ADP, the project was allocated Tk 4,326 crore.

However, project officials were able to utilise only Tk 1,170 crore as of last February. In late March when the government enforced the shutdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus, physical work for the metro rail project almost completely stopped.

According to project documents, the work progressed by only 0.55 percent in the last two months and reached an overall 44.67 percent progress as of May.

Dhaka Mass Transit Company Ltd (DMTCL) is constructing the elevated metro lines from Uttara 3rd Phase to Motijheel at a cost of around Tk 22,000 crore. Once completed, about 60,000 people will travel each hour using the lines.