2nd Dhaka-N’ganj Rail Line: BR project runs into more trouble

The second Dhaka-Narayanganj rail line project, which is already running behind schedule, has run into major trouble as a contractor has sought to cancel the contract.

Power Construction Corporation of China (PCCC), the contractor for civil works including laying the rail line, on March 15 sent a "contract termination notice" to the project authority citing that it was not getting payments and the project site was not handed over to it on time, shows a project document.

About 40 percent of the contractor's work still remains unfinished.

Yesterday, the Project Steering Committee held a meeting with Railways Secretary Humayun Kabir at the capital's Rail Bhaban. The committee asked the project authority to reach a solution with the contractor, said meeting sources.

In another development, Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan yesterday asked a delegation of PowerChina, the mother company of PCCC, to complete the Dhaka-Narayanganj rail line project before approaching the ministry for another BR project.

The delegation met the minister several weeks after Chinese state-run PowerChina sent a proposal to invest and build the Bhanga-Payra rail line on a Public Private Partnership model, two participants of the meeting said.

The delegation, however, was asked to submit the detailed proposal on the 214km line, which may cost more than Tk 50,000 crore, they said.

The BR in January 2015 took up the second Dhaka-Narayanganj rail line project at a cost of Tk 378.65 crore. The project, which was supposed to be completed within June 2017, is now running behind schedule by more than five years.

But the BR could not even hire two contractors for the works within the stipulated deadline. Although the latest deadline expired in December last year, the project has seen 82 percent progress so far.

When the BR in September 2022 sought extension of the deadline for fourth time up to December 2023, Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division refused to extend the time without a revision of the Development Project Proposal (DPP).

Later, the BR sought three and a half years more and an additional Tk 279.69 crore to complete the project. The revision proposal is now pending approval by the Planning Commission, shows the project document.

As the revision proposal was not approved, project authorities failed to pay the contractors, reads the document.

If the proposal is approved, the total cost of the project would go up to 658.34 crore and the deadline would be June 2026.

A BR official said the contractor's payment arrears is only Tk 15 crore and that it has already been handed over the land of 11km out of the total 12km.

The project office on March 23 wrote to the contractor giving an explanation about their allegation.

BR Director General Quamrul Ahsan said they have informed the Project Steering Committee about the issue.

"We have written to them [contractor] and asked them to sit with project authorities to solve the problem amicably," he told The Daily Star yesterday.

The existing Dhaka-Narayanganj metre gauge rail line is not capable of meeting the passengers' growing demand. And that's why the BR is building the new dual gauge line.