Little progress in highway upgrade

A section of Dhaka-Mymensingh highway is in tatters. The progress of upgrading the road into a dual carriageway is at snail's pace as the government and the contractor concerned play the blame game. The photo was taken from Rajendrapur, Gazipur. Photo: Rashed Shumon

When upgrading of 30-kilometre road from Joydevpur to Mawna is suspended due to legal complications, progress made so far for upgrading the rest 57 kilometres of the Joydevpur-Mymensingh highway is very frustrating.
Only 7.5 percent upgradation works have been completed till March 30 though the works started a year ago. It now seems highly unlikely that the works would complete within the given time, June 30 next year, officials at the communications ministry said.
They said the Tk 983 crore project to upgrade the 87-kilometre Joydevpur-Mymensingh highway into four-lane has to be extended by at least six months for its completion.
The officials said contractors involved in the project are not sincere in doing their job. But the contractors alleged that their works are being hampered due to slow release of fund by the government and delay in shifting electric poles from the highway.
The Awami League-led government took the project in 2010 to expand the national highway using the government fund. The project is divided into four packages. The government signed deals with contractor firms in January, 2011 and issued work orders in March the same year.
Intraco (BD), a joint venture with Chinese firm Hebei Road and Bridge Group Company (HRBC) Ltd, got package 1 and 2. The two packages are upgradation of 13-kilometre Joydevpur-Rajendrapur road at a cost of Tk 126 crore, and 17-kilometre Rajendrapur-Mawna road at a cost of Tk 203.47 crore.
A joint venture of Project Builders Ltd and Major Bridge Engineer Company of China got the Tk 388-crore package-3 to upgrade 30-kilometre road from Mawna to Raimoni.
The Tk 266-crore package-4 for upgrading work of 27-km Raimoni-Mymensingh road was awarded to Shamim Enterprise Ltd (SEL) and Toma, who has joint venture with Metallurgical Construction Overseas Company of China (MCCC). The 27-km road will be made 4-lane under the package.
“The firms are not capable enough to do the job and they did not engage sufficient workforce in their works. There is also a lack of sincerity among them [contractors] to implement the project,” said a communications ministry official involved in the project.
He, however, admitted that the government is failing to release the required money for the project due to fund crunch.
Representatives of the firms claimed that they received insufficient money this year.
“Last year, we got 10 percent of the total fund as mobilisation fund. We needed at least Tk 25 crore this year, but we received only Tk 4 crore,” Tuhin Bid Azam, project manager of SEL and Toma, told The Daily Star recently.
Mokhlesur Rahman, project manager of PBL, also came up with similar complaints.
Asked, Firoz Iqbal, project director of the Joydevpur-Mymensingh 4-lane project, said the government would soon release the required fund to the firms.
Iqbal, also a superintendent engineer of Roads and Highways Department (RHD), however, declined to comment on the slow implementation of the project.
Meanwhile, the communications ministry has decided to continue maintenance work on the 30-kilometre road from Joydevpur to Mawna as its upgradation has become uncertain.
BACKGROUND
On January 27 last year, former chief engineer Shahab Uddin of RHD and Sheikh Babar Ali of Intraco signed a Tk 330-crore deal to upgrade the 30-km road.
The deal was signed following recommendations of a six-member Tender Evaluation Committee (Tec) headed by the then RHD additional chief engineer Aminur Rahman Laskar.
Intraco mobilised its equipment and workforce to do their job. But in June 2011, when Syed Abul Hossain was the communications minister, his ministry cancelled the deal with Intraco (BD) Associates Ltd on charge of forging documents on the joint venture partnership with HRBC.
Later, the Tec communicated with HRBC head office in China which confirmed that the joint venture with Intraco was genuine. But the communications ministry stood by its decision.
It is widely alleged that the deal was cancelled as Intraco failed to appease former communications minister and some RHD officials.
The firm later went to the High Court challenging the ministry's decision and, kept suspended its upgrading works on the 30-km road.