Cost of the Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane highway project is set to increase again by minimum Tk 2.0 billion from the existing Tk 32 billion, as the project's lifetime has to be spun out by another year.
Sources said the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has already taken a move to revise the project cost. At least one more year is needed to complete expansion of nearly half of the 193-kilometre highway.
Expansion of the highway to a four-lane one was initiated in 2005-06 for accommodating increased traffic volume on the corridor between the capital and the port city.
But after awarding of contracts in 10 packages its ground-level works began at the end of 2010. The delay in starting and during construction jacked up the project cost to Tk 31.90 billion from the initially estimated Tk 16.70 billion.
According to the consultant report till this October, only 52.33 per cent work of the project has been completed during the last four years.
Officials said considering the extent of work, needed to be completed in the dry reason, the project office is likely to propose extension of the time up to December 2015 from December 2014. If so, it will be the forth revision of the four-lane project span, resulting further cost overrun.
However, RHD calculates the latest revision of the development project proposal (DPP) of the project as the third one, as DPP revision was done for the minor reason of acquiring land.
Meanwhile, the project office refrained from giving any figure on the project cost increase in the latest RDPP, as it is not yet finalised.
An official said, "When a project's time is extended, expenditures on different heads, like salary, fuel and rent, are usually recalculated, and some price adjustments are needed." He also said the DPP is considered a boundary for a project. So, the project office has to go for revision, if any change in time, cost and work volume takes place.
According to the consultant report, only 52.33 per cent physical work of the project has been completed. But, officials said they have done 92.6 per cent of the earth-filling work. Some 84.20 km of the bitumen pavement work and 128 km of the aggregate pavement work have been completed also.
Of the 23 road bridges, 17 have been completed, and only one big bridge and overpass in Comilla part of the highway have been completed from the project's additional construction packages.
Three companies have been working on expanding the 193-km highway in 10 packages. The two Bangladeshi firms, responsible for three packages, have completed around 70 per cent of the physical work.
However, the Chinese company has made 75 per cent progress in only one package, but its progress in three package areas has not been satisfactory, with completion of only 25 per cent work.
The company got the award for doing 70 per cent work of the Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane project in seven packages, being the lowest bidder.
smunima@yahoo.com