How many times can a project be revised?

The state of a project intended to turn a 190km road from Elenga to Rangpur into a four-lane highway has once again shown what is wrong with the government's Roads and Highways Department (RHD). The project was approved in September 2016 and supposed to be completed by June 2021 at a cost of Tk 11,899 crore, with loans mostly from the Asian Development Bank. However, the project authority did not even start physical work until 2020, and then added some new elements resulting in a major project revision. Consequently, its budget shot up to Tk 19,016 crore, and its deadline was pushed back to December 2024.

But so far, the project has seen a 75 percent progress, with the authority unable to even start the planned construction of two major flyovers in Gaibandha due to long delays in land acquisition. As a result, the authority has again sought two additional years, including a one-year defect liability period, and an additional Tk 40 crore to complete the job. The revision proposal is now pending with the Road Transport and Highways Division. Provided that it passes through all the procedural hoops, the project will have until December 2026 to complete—about five and a half years after its original deadline, which is ridiculous.

That being the case, the road transport and highway minister recently opened one railway overpass, seven road overpasses, and two bridges built under the project, boasting that these were the prime minister's "gifts" to citizens. How he could boast about a perennially protracted undertaking is beyond us. The delay in project implementation, including due to its revision, shows that the original plan was poorly done. Given that a major part of it is being financed via loans, which will have to be borne by the citizens, means that the RHD has once again failed to properly perform its duty leading to increased suffering for people.

Over the years, such delays and budget revisions by RHD seem to have become the norm, as have all forms of irregularities, whether they be forgoing crucial road safety audits, or hiring firms with questionable records, or something else. Therefore, it is high time the government overhauled the RHD and held its high officials accountable for their repeated failures and for turning the institution into a cesspool of irregularities and mismanagement.