BBA Board refrains from approving Army, BUET as joint supervisors

FE Team | Published: August 26, 2013 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report The Board of the Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) has refrained from giving the approval in principle to appointment of the Bangladesh Army and the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) as joint supervision consultants for the Padma Bridge project. The BBA placed the agenda in its board meeting held on Sunday with its members at Setu Bhaban. Twelve among 13 members including Communications Minister Obaidul Quader were present in the meeting. Officials said the board members discussed the issue but refrained from giving approval in principle as it is a matter of the Cabinet Committee on Purchase. "The board members asked us to send the proposal directly to the Cabinet Committee on Purchase for its approval as it is not the jurisdiction of the board members," said an official preferring not to be named. The BBA placed the approval issue as one of its agenda of Sunday's board meeting as its project office has made some progress in appointing the Army and the BUET for supervising part of the Padma Bridge project work. The officials said as the Padma Multi-purpose Bridge project office under the BBA has already received a proposal from the Army to carry out the work, a decision might have been taken to place the issue on the agenda to get the board's approval in principle. They said the board members observed that since the project office is an independent unit, it can send the proposal to the Cabinet Committee on its own. However, officials said, the board members approved in principle the project's another proposal to give the work of river protection to the Water Development Board (WDB) to stop river erosion at Mawa. The BBA has requested the WDB to carry out the river protection work of the Padma as 1.5 kilometre downstream from the Mawa point has been threatened due to river erosion. Due to non-inclusion of the work in the development project proposal of the Padma Bridge project, the BBA has also placed the agenda to the board for its approval in principle to avoid conflict. The officials said the board members directed the officials to follow the public procurement rules to give the work to the WDB as it has become emergency for the existence of the Padma Bridge and river training work. River erosion in the project area has taken a serious turn due to the delay in starting river training work (RTW). The BBA has already conducted a river protection work to save Jajira side construction yard. On the agenda of giving approval to providing a portion of the toll from the Bangabandhu Bridge to the district administration, the members also asked the BBA to seek opinion of the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) and place it again in the next board meeting.