Despite the communications minister’s self-imposed deadline to finish expanding the Dhaka-Chittagong highway into four lanes by the government’s tenure, only about a quarter of the work has finished until May, two and a half years into its initiation.
“We might be able to progress by another 20% and the total progress might be above 45 per cent within December 31 of 2013.
However, since the government is only likely to hold office maximum until December, finishing the project within its tenure will be impossible,” an official of the project said requesting anonymity.
A revised development project proposal extends the deadline until the end of 2014. Officials marked consultancy glitches, frequent replacement of project directors and the ministry’s failure in providing necessary support to contractors to collect earth and extortion.
However, Communication Minister Obaidul Quader, when contacted Tuesday, declined to comment on the matter and suggested that the Dhaka Tribune communicates with the Roads Division secretary.
The secretary, MAN Siddique, told the Dhaka Tribune: “The authorities are trying to finish work within the deadline targeted in the revised proposal. The work is not related to fiscal years and we hope to finish work within the deadline.” He, however, declined to say anything else.
The construction work for the expansion started in January 2010 to ease traffic congestion on the busy link between the capital and country’s main port city. The project was initially approved by the National Economic Council in 2006 and revised in 2009.
“The construction work is going on swiftly. The financial progress of the project is 31 per cent,” a project official said preferring to remain unnamed.
The Roads and Highways Department is implementing the project that will widen the 192.3-kilometer stretch of the busy highway between Daudkandi toll plaza and Chittagong Gate to 4 lanes.
The initial estimate had put the figure around Tk21.68bn. However, following the revision, it stands at Tk31.02bn. Project officials said, of the revised estimate, Tk23.82bn would be spent for the construction while the rest would be spent to acquire
land and fund other costs and marked land acquisition issues as a major cause of the delay.
The project is getting an allocation of Tk5bn in the development budget for the next fiscal (2013-14), the officials said.