Jhenaidah-Jashore highway expansion: Good start, but end still afar

In a rare move, the authorities appointed a project director just after five days of the approval of the Jhenaidah-Jashore highway expansion project in November 2020.

The move came after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina while approving the project at the Ecnec expressed serious discontent over the five-year tenure of the project.

Following her directive, the project period was cut to three years and a deadline for December 2023 was set.

But uncertainty looms over the project's completion by then as authorities have spent 14 months to appoint consultants for detailed design, preparing bid documents and other work.

Roads and Highways Department (RHD), the implementing agency for the Tk 4,188-crore project, is scheduled to sign a contract with a joint-venture company for the consultancy services tomorrow.

The firm will get one year to draw up the design and prepare documents, Project Director Zabid Hasan said.

They expect to start the bidding process after June.

"We want to complete all the process within this year," he told The Daily Star yesterday.

This means the entire work of expanding the road to a dual carriageway will get only one year to be completed.

"We will try our best," he said about meeting the deadline.

Cost escalations and delays in development projects are common in the country and the prime minister expressed discontent over the issue on several occasions.

JHENAIDAH-JASHORE HIGHWAY

The 48.50km Jhenaidah-Jashore highway is a part of a 260km road corridor that would be developed under a programme called "Western Economic Corridor and Regional Enhancement Programme (WeCARE)".

The RHD will improve the 260km road corridor into four lanes along with service lanes on both sides, aiming to improve cross-border connectivity.

When the Jhenaidah-Jashore highway expansion project was placed before the Ecnec on November 24, 2020, with a stipulated deadline of October 2020 to December 2025, including a one-year defect liability period, the PM expressed discontent.

She reportedly questioned why it would take five years to improve a 48km road and asked for its completions within 2023.

Asked why they took 14 months to appoint consultants, the project director said they had to get approval from both the government and the World Bank at every stage, which took time.