Gathering dust for years

Back in July 2006, the Ministry of Shipping took up a Tk 58 crore project to dredge the outer channel of the Pashur river.

It was scheduled to be completed by June 2011.

Bids were invited five times, but no one submitted any documents. When the tender was called for the sixth time in 2008, a French company submitted its proposal. But since then, there has been no progress though Tk 15 crore had been allocated for the project from the Annual Development Programme (ADP) in the 2016-17 fiscal year.

The project remained stalled for over 10 years, but the government on May 11 this year took up another project involving Tk 166.50 crore to dredge the outer bar of the Pashur channel. Last month, the cost of this project had been set at Tk 179 crore.

This is not the sole instance of a project getting stuck for years. Currently, there are 36 such projects involving over Tk 20,000 crore that have either remained stalled or have seen slow progress.

Non-confirmation of finance, delay in preparation and approval of projects, difficulty in land acquisition and complexities in appointing and selecting bidders were the main reasons behind this stagnant situation of the projects, according to a planning ministry report.

The ministry decided to cancel these projects but Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at a meeting in May this year directed the planning minister to review the projects for their implementation. Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal is likely to sit today to review the progress of the projects and decide on their fate.

Most of these projects were taken up during the Awami League's 2009-2014 tenure, except for two taken up by the 2007-2008 caretaker government and one by the BNP-led coalition government during its 2001-2006 regime.

Of the stalled projects, 11 are of the power division, five of the railways ministry, three each of road transport, industries, home and LGRD ministries.

The Ministry of Railways took up a Tk 1,106 crore project in July 2012 to construct third and fourth dual-gauge line on Dhaka-Tongi route and a dual-gauge double line on Tongi-Joydebpur route. But it could not start the project due to complexities in land acquisition. Only the consulting firm submitted reports on design and tendering service.

The same happened to the Tk 678 crore project for the reconstruction of Kulaura- Shahbazpur rail line.

The ministry has been able to invite tender for 70 metre-gauge diesel electric locomotives since June 2012. The cost of the project is Tk 1,946 crore.

Tk 2,040 crore Greater Dhaka Sustainable Urban Transport project, known as Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), from Airport to Gazipur had seen only 4.1 percent progress in terms of financial expenditure since December 2012. A process is on to evaluate bidders, according to a report of the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) under the planning ministry.

Taken up in January and June 2013, the Tk 2,427 crore National Power Transmission Network Development Project and Tk 1,860 crore construction of new 132/33kv and 33/11kv sub-station project of the power division saw 7.8 and 15.7 percent progress, the report said. Both the projects are supposed to be completed in June next year.

The Local Government Division took up a Tk 4,491 crore project in January 2014 to supply water to Chittagong Wasa from the Karnaphuli river (second phase). The project was supposed to be done by December 2016. But only 6.3 percent work has so far been completed, the report added.

IMED officials said these projects were affecting other development projects in the ADP and those should either be scrapped or implemented fast.