Shamsul Huda The progress of construction of Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane highway has slowed down as Sino Hydro is having trouble with its head office about disbursement of adequate funds for expediting the work, sources said. In 20 months they were able to complete only 7.5 kilometres, out of a total of 140-kilometre-long work for which it was given the contract, Roads and Highways Department (RHD) sources said. It has become uncertain when the state-run company of China, which was given the work for constructing four-lane highway in seven blocks, would be able to complete the project. The whole work is divided into ten blocks. A RHD official, requesting for anonymity, said the firm is currently not getting enough money from its head office to continue work as it is considered to be a project for which the Chinese company has already incurred a substantial amount of loss. A construction expert, also preferring anonymity, said the performance to date by this internationally reputed Chinese firm is not at all satisfactory. As the firm has incurred "losses for mistakes in quoting its prices during the bid-processing phase of the tender" and also for increase of prices of construction material, it is difficult to predict the fate of the project, he said. The Chinese firm, he added, may not be able to complete the project on time and may ultimately 'surrender' it. The Bangladesh government-funded Tk 31.29 billion four-lane project is aimed to ease the increasing pressure of vehicles on the major transport artery, by converting the existing two-lane highway into four lane-one. The company was given three years' time in January 2011 to complete the construction work by December 2014. But in two years Sino Hydro was able to complete only 7.5 kilometres of the four-lane highway, according to the data provided by the RHD. Out of a total of 192 kilometre-long construction work, the works for 52 kilometres were awarded to two local firms and that of 140 kilometres was awarded to Sino Hydro. A source inside the RHD said the internationally-renowned Sino Hydro may lose their goodwill in Bangladesh as there were a number of faults in their price quotations in the process of the tender. The rate of progress of two local companies is higher than that of the Chinese company and their work is satisfactory, he observed. Despite several attempts to talk over telephone, the Sino Hydro project manager declined to talk to the FE correspondent. Md. Mahbubur Rahman, assistant project director, Dhaka-Chittagong Highway Four-lane Project said, "We know the Chinese firm is in troubles but they are trying to complete the project." He said the Sino Hydro has sought extra time until March 2015 for completion of the project, instead of December 2014. The firm may have completed only 7.5 kilometres job but they are advancing fast as the progress of the most time-consuming earthwork by Sino Hydro is at about 85 per cent on an average, Mr. Rahman added. He said, "We hope in the coming months their progress will be faster." Another official in the RHD's Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane project said faults are also there on the government side as the Chinese firm lost time during the acquisition of land by the government. He said it is the government's obligation to solve problems relating to acquisition of land before going for tender.
Progress slow as Chinese firm disbursing inadequate funds
FE Team | Published: October 14, 2013 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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