Uncertainty about the Uttara Apartment Project heightened as ENA Properties Ltd owned by Awami League lawmaker Enamul Haque along with two other Korean companies has completed only 4% of the work in last two and a half years.
The project was supposed to be completed by December this year.
The Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) signed an agreement with ENA and two Korean companies – Dung Ah and DDJ – for 75% of the total construction work of 49 16-storey buildings having flats measuring 1250sq-ft each.
As for 16 other buildings Rajuk inked another deal with two other companies – the Hamid Real Estate Construction Ltd of Hamid Group owned by Nasrul Hamid Bipu, the ruling party lawmaker of Dhaka 4 constituency, and the Building for Future Limited.
Nasrul Hamid Bipu is also the state minister for power, energy and mineral resources.
Hamid Real Estate and its associate firms have completed around 20% work.
In December 2011, Rajuk struck the first deal with ENA Properties for constructing 20 apartments by March 2012.
Later in 2012, Rajuk signed another contract with ENA for the construction of 29 more apartments in June the same year.
A joint venture agreement was also signed with ENA Properties and South Korean companies Dung Ah and DDJ.
ENA Properties has so far taken over Tk25 crore from Rajuk but no progress has been made in the past two years, said Rajuk sources.
Because of the dilly-dally of ENA, Rajuk sent warning letters to the company several times but it paid no heed to those warnings prompting Rajuk to terminate the ENA-Dung Ah and ENA-DDJ agreements in December last year.
But ENA is yet to quit the project and is now trying to manage another sub-contractor for the project, sources in Rajuk said.
Visiting the project area the Dhaka Tribune correspondent found that ENA had just begun piling for the foundation of the buildings although it had started construction in 2012.
Meanwhile, ENA has filed a writ petition with the High Court against a few officials of Rajuk, the Ministry of Housing and Public Works, and the IFIC bank.
Consequently, the High Court issued a stay order, asking the IFIC manager of the branch concerned not to allow Rajuk to cash a cheque of Tk72,641,573 deposited by ENA-DDJ as the performance guarantee money.
The stay order was also issued on a letter sent by Rajuk to ENA-DDJ on December 12 last year mentioning termination of the deal.
Moreover, ENA also sent a legal notice to Rajuk, asking for explanation as to why it had terminated the deal with ENA.
Project Director Prafulla Chandra Bhowmik told the Dhaka Tribune that Rajuk’s legal section was dealing with the matter.
“The agreement was terminated due to the delay in construction and all the decisions were made by Rajuk high-ups,” he added.
Enamul Haque could not be reached over phone for comments despite several attempts.
Flat owners have meanwhile expressed concerns whether they would be handed over the flats on time. Although Rajuk is supposed to hand over the flats in 2016, it is unlikely that it would be able to meet the deadline.
Already more than 500 flat owners have withdrawn their installment money, said sources in Rajuk.
After the termination of the deal with ENA, said Rajuk officials, the government planned to go forward with the project on a G2G basis with the Malaysian government.
They also said the Housing and Public Works Ministry and Rajuk were jointly dealing with the Malaysian authorities to implement the construction of apartments.
Rajuk Chairman GM Joynal Abedin Bhuiyan yesterday said: “The government of Bangladesh and Malaysia would work on a government-to-government basis on the unfinished project.
“A Malaysian team has already come in Bangladesh to visit the project area.”
Answering to a question about ENA’s legal action, Joynal Abedin said: “Since the matter is pending in court, it will not be wise to comment on it.
“The court has no order or ruling against the land, so the construction will continue on the selected land of the project area after the new deal.”
The Public Works Department has also been tasked with constructing 30 buildings under the project. It has signed an agreement with ENA for the project but progress here has also been slow.
The PWD is considering terminating its contract with ENA, said a source in the department.
