An agreement for construction of the mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as metro rail, is set to be signed today with the Japanese infrastructure firm ignoring a faked experience certificate attached to the curriculum vitae of a key project engineer.
The fabrication in the CV of Deputy Team Leader Engr Q A Fida was detected five months before the cabinet committee on public purchase on November 5 approved the communication ministry’s proposal to award the consultancy job of the Tk220b metro rail project to Nippon Koei, a senior official at communication ministry said.
Official documents exchanged among various government ministries and departments show the deputy team leader selected for the project did not have prior experience of working in two infrastructure projects at the same position as required for the job.
Responding to a query from the Prime Minister’s Office, the local government ministry informed on June 12 that Engr Q A Fida’s claim that he had worked as deputy team leader or deputy project manager on behalf of the Development Construction Ltd for the construction of Khilgaon Flyover between November 2002 and January 2005 was not correct.
Md Jasim Uddin, Project Director of Khilgaon Flyover project, said, “After scrutinising the documents and CV authentication of Engr Q A Fida, it is understood that he was not involved in any activities of construction of Khilgaon Flyover project.”
But the Roads and Highways Division of the communication ministry did not take the matter into consideration. As a result the proposal of appointing MRT construction consultant got approved by the purchase committee on November 5 without question, ministry officials said.
A consortium of six local and international firms, led by Nippon Koei Construction Company of Japan, has got the Tk9.5 billion consultancy work for the metro rail project. It comprises Nippon Koei India, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation India, Mott MacDonald UK and Mott MacDonald India and Bangladeshi company Development Design Consultant.
As per the proposal, the lead member of consortium Nippon Koei Company Ltd obtained 86.49% marks in the technical evaluation of the bids followed by Oriental Consultants Company of Japan scoring 85.25% and Systra SA of France 79.84%.
The R&H division is likely to sign the consultancy agreement with Nippon Koei for construction of metro rail today.
After the approval of the consultancy job, Finance Minister AMA Muhith on November 5 said, “Work on the metro rail project will start one year ahead of earlier schedule as the Japan International Cooperation Agency wants to disburse Tk 400m next year.” He hoped it would be completed in four years.
The key financer of the project, Jica, offered to divert the amount it had pledged for the Padma bridge project to the metro rail scheme, officials said.
The metro rail will run from Uttara Third Phase to Motijheel via Pallabi, Rokeya Sarani, Khamar Bari, Farmgate, Hotel Sonargaon, Shahbagh, Doyel Chattar and Topkhana Road.
Later, the tracks will be extended up to Sayedabad from Motijheel via Atish Dipankar Road.
