The cost of the Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover has gone up by nearly 58% or Tk446 crore, as the government yesterday decided to grant the extra fund and extend the project deadline to June 2017.
The approval came at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the NEC conference room in the city yesterday.
Now the project cost will stand at around Tk1,219 crore, up by 57.8% from the initial estimated cost of Tk772 crore. Of the increased cost, the government will provide Tk242 crore while the rest will come from donors.
Originally approved in 2011, the flyover project received several deadline extensions and was finally scheduled to be completed by December 2015. But the latest extension will now give builders 18 more months to finish their jobs.
Following a directive from the Prime Minister’s Office, the flyover will now also have a 450 metre extension from the FDC entrance to Hotel Sonargaon at Karwan Bazar, increasing the total length of the flyover from 8.25km to 8.7km.
When the project first got its nod from Ecnec in 2011, it was meant to be finished by December 2013. But the flyover’s construction has moved at a slow pace since work began in 2013 – two years later than originally planned.
Dhaka residents have had to bear the consequence of the delay with regular traffic congestions plaguing the nearby streets.
As of June last year, only 54% of the work had been completed for an expenditure of over Tk382 crore, half of the originally allotted fund.
About the rising construction cost of the flyover project, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal told reporters after yesterday’s meeting that the project cost was pushed up because of the new 450 metre extension, which was approved after taking the area’s traffic congestion into account.
Sources, however, told the Dhaka Tribune that the extension would cost only Tk85 crore.
Majority of the cost was increased because of delay in implementing the project and the rise in price of construction materials.
Currently, the flyover is being built in three parts – from Moghbazar to Tejgaon, from Kakrail to Rampura and from Mouchak to Banglamotor – to ease traffic congestion between the capital’s northern and southern areas.
The Saudi Fund for Development and OPEC Fund for International Development are funding some of the additional costs of the project.
Yesterday’s Ecnec meeting also approved nine more development projects worth about Tk4384.92 crore. Of the 10 projects, seven are new and three are revised.