‘Chinese contractor will compensate for it’
China Railway Group Limited, also known as CREC, the contractor of the Padma Bridge Rail Link Project (PBRLP), will have to pay for damaging the newly-built Dhaka-Mawa-Bhanga expressway by operating overloaded trucks with construction materials.
Roads and Highways Department (RHD), who is the custodian of the first-ever expressway of the country, said the amount would be more than Tk 50 crore while PBRLP authorities said they were yet to ascertain it.
"Our contractor will pay the money as the damage of the road was caused by them," Project Director of PBRLP Golam Fakhruddin Ahmed Chowdhury told The Daily Star on Tuesday.
In July, RHD and CREC were at loggerheads over the use of the expressway for transporting construction materials.
RHD officials said the contractor and sub-contractors are damaging the expressway by operating heavy-loaded trucks to transport materials for the project. They sought around Tk 50 crore from the project authorities in compensation.
On the other hand, a CREC statement on July 9 said the contractor was facing obstacles in carrying on project work as the road authorities had gradually been closing the passages to the main road since June 11.
"Hence, the PBRLP project is currently facing suspension and heavy financial loss," reads the CREC statement.
Amid this situation, officials of RHD, PBRLP, road transport and bridges ministry, and railways ministry held several meetings to solve the problem.
As per the "common understanding" reached at a meeting of ministries and agencies concerned some two weeks ago, the RHD would receive Tk 54 crore in compensation for damaging the expressway, said Sabuj Uddin Khan, additional chief engineer (Dhaka zone) of RHD.
As per meeting decision, project authorities would be allowed to operate two-axle (six-wheel) trucks on the expressway.
Besides, the project authorities would create a fund, from where RHD would get more money if the road is damaged further, Sabuj told this correspondent on Tuesday.
PBRLP Director Golam Fakhruddin Ahmed said the amount was not fixed yet and their consultants are working to determine the amount.
Replying to a question, he said, "It would take some time [to ascertain the amount]. Our consultants are working on it."
When this correspondent contacted CREC through their PR agency, it said, "CREC has not received any instruction from BR or RHD to discuss about compensation, if any, against damages inflicted on N8 [Dhaka-Mawa-Bhanga expressway]."
In March, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the country's first-ever expressway from Dhaka to Faridpur's Bhanga upazila.
The 55km four-lane highway, with service lanes on both sides, is the most expensive road in terms of cost per kilometre in the country.
On the other hand, the Ecnec in May 2016 approved the "Padma Bridge Rail Link Project" to connect the capital with Jashore with a 169km rail line over the under-construction Padma Bridge.
The deadline of the Tk 39,246-crore project is June 2024.
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