Contractors are likely to miss the extended deadline for completing the Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover project which could lead to further escalation of construction costs of the mega infrastructure, officials and experts said.
Moreover, public sufferings in and around the project areas will continue unabated.
Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) under the ministry of local government, rural development (LGRD) and cooperatives started the construction on February 16, 2013 with a two-year timeframe.
But the project implementing authority recently extended the deadline, which will expire on December, 2014 for another six months to June, 2015 because of some complexities including the underground utility infrastructure and traffic movement that hampered the construction works.
"The contractors will fail to meet the latest deadline also as less than 45 per cent physical progress was made in 20 months of the construction while no mentionable progress has been made so far as design of the largest part of the project is concerned," an official said.
The project is being implemented under three packages -- PDMMFP W04 (a stretch of 2.1 km from Satrastha to Ramna via Moghbazar) and PDMMFP W06 (2.2 km from Janakantha office in Eskaton to Mouchak via Moghbazar) and PDMMFP W05 (3.93 km from Malibagh Chowdhurypara to Razarbagh and Shantinagar.
Toma Construction & Company Ltd, a concern of Toma Group that secured work order for constructing two packages (package-5 and package-6) of the 8.25 kilometre structure, has already sent a letter to the LGED seeking time extension till December 2015.
Talking to the FE, Project manager of Toma Construction, Sanjay Kumar, said they need at least one year more to complete the flyover because of the faulty design of the structure.
He said they had to make some readjustments in the underground design of the structure only to keep the underground utility infrastructure unaffected, which have eaten up a major portion of the valuable time.
"So, it has become very tough to accomplish the task within the extended deadline which expires in June next. We probably need more time to complete the job," he said.
Senior Engineer of the Group, Ashraful Alam Shimul, said a team of BUET (Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology) is assigned to make some readjustments in the faulty design of the flyover.
"Dimension of the structure will be expanded as we need to increase the number of piles to around 360 from the existing 317. At the same time, size of the pile will also need to be modified," he said adding that they cannot go for construction in full swing because of those unresolved tasks.
When asked about the construction costs, he said the spending could go up by around 40 per cent.
When contacted, Project Director Alhaj Nazmul Alam said they have extended the deadline for six months because of some complexities in underground utility lines of various agencies.
"Yes, we made some changes in the design but it would not anyway affect the main structure," he said adding that a contractor has submitted a prayer of further time extension with budgetary revision.
"Unless it is approved by the government, the project costs will remain the same. It's a mega project….so there can have some problems. It's quite natural and we have to overcome those," he said
"Hopefully, we will finish the jobs within the extended timeframe," he said.
Seeking anonymity, a senior official of the project said the construction firms are making some tricks to raise the construction cost in the name of faulty design and other things.
They also slowed down the construction activities in some parts of the project to kill time, he said adding that the contractors will not be able to execute the whole project within the extended time.
"It would take at least one and a half years more to finish the jobs as less then 5.0 per cent works have been done under package-5 from Malibagh Chowdhurypara to Razarbagh and Shantinagar," he added.
BUET Professor Dr. Shansul Hoque said some faults were found in design of the boxes installed at the upper side of the piers of the flyover following verification by them after a request by the LGED.
"Design of the boxes was not up to the standard of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) that Bangladesh follows in such development works," he said.
He said LGED foreign consultant came to them to check configuration of the boxes in line with the AASHTO requirements and asked them to make some changes if necessary.
He said both boxes and girders are used in the flyover.
"We (BUET) handle only revision of the boxes which accounts for 20 per cent of the overall flyover. So, I don't think the contractors suffer much due to the problem as it is a work of top most layer of the structure," he said.
He said if the problem is linked with foundation and pier then the contractors will have to sit idle for revision of the drawing. "We've already sent the revised drawing of packages 4 and 6 to the contractors and we will require one month more to finish the drawing for package-5," he added.
The Australian firm SMEC International and its three local associates-ACE Consultants Limited, SARM Associates Limited and Kranti Associates Limited-are working as consultancy firms for the project.
The estimated cost of the four-lane flyover is around Tk 7.73 billion. Of the project costs, the SFD will provide more than Tk 3.75 billion and the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) Tk 2.0 billion while the remaining Tk 2.0 billion will come from the public exchequer, officials said.
The project is very important for the capital's traffic management as the flyover is designed to ease gridlock at eight intersections-Satrasta, FDC, Moghbazar, Mouchak, Malibagh, Shantinagar, Rampura Chowdhurypara and Ramna thana where commuters remain stranded for hours every day.
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