Padma Bridge: Wait now gets even longer
People’s wait for the Padma bridge is going to get longer as the authorities now seek to extend the deadline for one and a half years.
The new deadline to complete the work will be June 2021; currently it is December this year. This is the fourth time the deadline is being changed.
However, the authorities did not seek escalation of the project cost, which is Tk 30,193 crore, officials said.
The Bridges Division, the implementing authority of the project, in September sent a proposal to the planning ministry, seeking extension of time.
And the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED), after a recent spot visit recommended the time extension with some conditions.
“We will now place the proposal before the Ecnec [Executive Committee of National Economic Council] meeting for approval soon,” a planning ministry official told this newspaper, seeking anonymity.
“The delay in handing over the pile design [to the contractor] is the main reason for the change in the schedule,” Project Director Shafiqul Islam told The Daily Star yesterday.
He declined to give further details.
Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said on August 29 that the movement of vehicles on the Padma bridge would begin by June 2021.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, replying to a query at a press conference, said it was not possible to give a specific timeframe for completion of the construction which is a highly technical work.
Prof Jamilur Reza Choudhury, chairman of the government’s panel of experts on the Padma bridge, told The Daily Star yesterday, “We hope that the work of the project will be completed within the new timeframe if no major problem arises.”
However, the contractor would have to considerably speed up the work and deploy additional manpower and equipment, he said.
Currently, the national professor observed, only two spans are installed in a month and it would be difficult to complete the work within the timeframe at this speed.
Asked whether the project cost may escalate further, he said “It would depend on the price of the key materials including fuel, stone, steel, rods, cements and skilled labourers.
“If prices of the ingredients go up, the cost of the project will increase further. If the prices go down, the project cost will decrease.”
Two major components of the project are the main bridge and river training.
Eighty-four percent work of the main bridge is done while 63 percent work of river training have been completed till September, according to the project documents.
The first span was installed on September 30, 2017. The Padma bridge will have total 41 spans.
Around 2,250-metre stretch of the bridge is now visible as the 15th span (superstructure) was installed on October 22.
Once constructed, the bridge will directly connect the capital to 21 southern districts, through road and railways.
REASONS BEHIND DELAYS
IMED, in its report, mentioned four reasons behind the delay -- two reasons each relating to the main bridge and river training.
The authorities have to redesign piles of 22 piers, out of 40, as differences emerged between the information obtained through geotechnical investigation in the design phase and construction phase.
The authorities failed to place the design of the piles of piers on right time and this contributed to the delay.
The report also pointed to the delay in pile re-designing that also deferred the construction of span (steel truss), the report said.
Strong currents in the Padma in 2015 created two huge scours (erosion hole) in the river, forcing the authorities to change work for slope protection, causing six months’ delay.
The contractor could not complete the river training on time due to strong current, it also mentioned.
However, the complications over the piers have been addressed.
The IMED in the report gave several conditions, including preparing a new work plan for the fresh deadline and ensuring timely disbursement of money.
BACKGROUND
A feasibility study on the project was conducted with assistance from Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) from 2003 to 2005. The original cost was estimated in 2007 on the basis of the study.
Then cost was Tk 10,161 crore. However, it did not include the cost of railway lines on the bridge.
With financing from the Asian Development Bank, the work on a detailed design of the bridge had started in 2009.
The cost almost doubled to Tk 20,507 crore when the first revision was done in 2011, including the cost of the railway lines.
According to the first revision, the project was scheduled to be completed in 2015.
The authorities in 2015 revised the project cost by 40 percent, raising the estimated cost to Tk 28,793 crore. The deadline for completion of the project was extended to 2018.
Later, the deadline was extended to December 2019 and the cost shot up to 30,193 crores to acquire additional land last year.
The World Bank withdrew its $1.2 billion loan in 2012 over the allegations of corruption conspiracies, which the government always strongly rejected.
The country then moved to build the bridge with its own funds.
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