The construction of seven footbridges in the capital under a funding by the World Bank is going on at a snail’s pace because of alleged irregularities of Dhaka South City Corporation officials concerned.
The DSCC in the last three fiscal years allocated Tk85 crore for the construction under the Clean Air and Sustainable Environment (CASE) project but some of its officials and contractors are deliberately delaying the construction to pocket extra cash, a DSCC official told the Dhaka Tribune.
“The more the construction is delayed, the higher the implementation cost will get. This means officials concerned and the contractors will be able to earn more from the project,” the official said, adding that construction had been halted four to five times in the past.
Construction of all the footbridges began around two years back, and some of the seven remain in a half-built state while the others are almost complete.
The city corporation resumed the construction after the Dhaka Tribune ran a story on the issue on May 27 this year but the work has once again been halted.
The authorities have no fund shortage but construction is still stopped, said the DSCC official.
In November, Dhaka Metropolitan Police conducted a week-long drive against jaywalking at Farmgate, Karwan Bazar and Banglamotor. In addition to raising awareness of the use of footbridges, pedestrians were fined for crossing roads in violation of traffic rules, but the city corporation is still delaying the construction of the footbridges.
Locals in areas where the footbridges are under construction have expressed discontent at the sluggish work progress.
A tea stall owner near the half-built Panthapath footbridge told the Dhaka Tribune its construction began more than a year ago.
“Progress was slow as we have observed and the workers are now gone. They were working some two to three months back but one day, they stopped coming to work suddenly,” he added.
Md Shehab Ullah, director of the CASE project, told the Dhaka Tribune that construction of the seven footbridges was going on, but refused to answer why construction had been halted several times in the past.
In March this year, Shehab Ullah told the Dhaka Tribune construction would be completed by December.
The CASE project was launched in mid-2009, which included a range of infrastructural developments to be implemented in different areas under both the city corporations.
Meanwhile, a World Bank report on implementation of the CASE project published in April this year said 40% of the construction of the footbridges had been completed till March 24.
The report added that almost 75% of the project is expected to be completed by December 2016.
The Ministry of Environment, with assistance from the WB, undertook the CASE project to address the problem of urban air pollution.
The project is run by a project implementation unit consisting of officials from both the city corporations.