The government is set to revise the Cox's Bazar airport upgradation project hiking its cost by nearly 300 per cent from the original estimate, officials said Monday.
The Project Evaluation Committee (PEC) of the Planning Commission will sit next week for evaluating the revised Development Project Proposal (DPP) of the Cox's Bazar airport before the proposed revision.
Officials said the delay in execution has resulted in the unusual hike in the cost of the airport upgradation project and addition of three and a half years more time for completing the works.
According to the revised proposal, the Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh (CAAB) has sought Tk 11.95 billion fund, 296 per cent higher than the original cost of Tk 3.03 billion, for the Cox's Bazar airport development (1st phase) project.
Besides, the authority has also sought three and a half years more time until December 2018 for completing the airport expansion works. The project was scheduled to start in October 2009.
"The PEC will sit next week for scrutinising the project. If they find the proposal alright, they will recommend for approval by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC)," said a senior PC official.
When asked, a CAAB official said since some fresh components have been added to the revised DPP and the prices of construction materials have escalated, the overall cost has increased.
The CAAB in 2009 took up the Cox's Bazar airport development project at a cost of Tk 3.03 billion to complete it by June 2012.
Following failure to implement the project in time, the government extended the timeframe up to December 2013 with an upward revision of the cost to Tk 5.49 billion.
Then again, the CAAB failed to implement the project and got one and a half-year time extension up to June 2015 to complete the project without increasing the cost.
Yet, the CAAB failed again to complete it within the stipulated time (June 2015) as it implemented only 0.81 per cent until May this year.
The CAAB recently sent the revised project proposal to the Planning Commission (PC) seeking Tk 8.93 billion additional fund from its original outlay of Tk 3.03 billion and the execution timeline up to December 2018.
"We are scrutinising the revised proposal of the CAAB. But the huge cost overrun is really a challenge for the government," said a senior PC official.
Lack of proper feasibility study is the main reason behind the cost escalation, the official told the FE.
"Sometimes many ministers put pressure on PC for approving projects of their ministries despite having no feasibility studies on the relevant projects. In most of the cases, these projects ultimately face setbacks in their implementation stages. It results in execution delay and misappropriation of huge public money," he added.
A Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry official said since the government high-ups recently directed them to upgrade the Cox's Bazar airport as an international one, the original DPP has been recast in a massive way resulting in cost escalation.
The revised DPP has incorporated a 300-metre bridge at Tk 2.0 billion cost and 3.87-kilometre 'slop protection bank' at Tk 2.10 billion which has facilitated escalation of the overall cost, the official added.
Besides, the overall cost of the project is rising due to higher land acquisition price, consultancy services, and bidding prices, he added.
The Cox's Bazar airport was established during the World War-II for military use. Now the airport is being utilised for carrying cargoes and passengers. It is one of the best routes for domestic airlines as thousands of tourists take flights to visit Cox's Bazar.
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