Dragging on for a decade

A project on the construction of Chattogram City Outer Ring Road -- that was taken around ten years back in 2011 with four-year completion period -- is yet to be completed.

Implementing organisation Chattogram Development Authority (CDA) is going to place a proposal at the meeting of Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) today for revision of the project for the third time, with extension of project period and raising the cost.

With this, the project period has been extended for five times.

The deadline for completion of the project was earlier set at June this year. But the authorities have initiated again for the third revision with proposal of raising expenditure by Tk 249 crore and extending the period six more months to December 2021.In the third revision, CDA proposed to raise the cost of Tk 856.286-crore initial project to Tk 2,675.96 crore.

CDA took the project, titled "Chattogram City Outer Ring Road (Patenga to Sagarika)" to construct a 15.2-kilometre embankment plus four-lane road on the existing coastal embankment stretching from Patenga to Rasmoni Ghat at South Kattoli road in 2011.

Project Director (PD) Kazi Hasan Bin Shams, said construction of the embankment and road under the project has been completed and opened for vehicular movement since August.

The original coastal embankment was 5-feet wide at the bottom and 18-20 feet wide at the top; the bottom width has been enhanced up to 300-350 feet and the top width to 100 feet, and the road constructed on the embankment is 30 feet above sea level, said Shams, also chief engineer of CDA.

The project was aimed at protecting the port city from flood and tidal surge through strengthening the coastal embankment, easing traffic congestion by creating a road to bypass heavy vehicles from the city and to connect the road with the under-construction tunnel under the river Karnaphuly as well as encouraging trade, industry, tourism and foreign investment through development of the areas.

Ecnec approved the Tk 856.286-crore project on March 29 in 2011. The originally approved project was scheduled to be completed by December 2014. But the implementation came to a halt as CDA could not go for land acquisition and re-settlement with the money allocated by the government.

The PD said in the initial Development Project Proposal (DPP) they asked for Tk 1,500 crore for the whole project, including Tk 730 crore for land acquisition.

But the planning commission downsized the budget and set only Tk 175 crore for land acquisition, and the project cost was fixed at Tk 856.286 crore, he said.

As land owners did not get their compensation, they filed cases, delaying construction work at the time. CDA later submitted a revised budget, dropping one of the three proposed feeder roads from the project and went for the first revision.

In November 2013, the first revision of the project was approved by Ecnec, deciding the project period from 2011 to June 2017. The project cost then increased to Tk 1,496.357 crore.

The second revision of project was approved in December 22, 2016, raising the cost to 2,426.1495 crore by including some components like a 5.5-kilometre retaining wall alongside Patenga sea beach, construction of walkway in some portions and enhancing the block slope protection at the embankment up to 15 kilometres from previous four-kilomtre stretch.

The second revision was proposed since more land was also needed to be acquired, said the project director.

The third revision has been proposed as some more components are included, like extension of retaining wall from 5.5 kilometre to six kilometre, increasing the number of wave deflector walls, extension of block slope protection, enhancing walkway and construction of a connecting road from Chattogram Export Processing Zone (CEPZ).

The Design Cell of the Water Development Board brought some changes after the second revision, which prompted the third revision, he said.

"Meanwhile, due to devaluation of Japanese currency against Bangladeshi Taka, JICA did not disburse the additional money worth Tk 62 crore which now we seek from the government," said the PD, adding that this is also a reason behind the third revision.

He informed that 92 per cent of the physical work under the project has been completed.