The development of the dedicated bus corridor on Gazipur-Airport route appears to be never-ending, as the project has already witnessed extensions for the seventh time.
Just as the project was nearing completion, with only 3 per cent left, two Chinese contractors stopped work for the past eight months claiming price adjustment and variation in their work.
As a result, authorities concerned were forced to extend the project deadline by another year after it expired last December. Official sources said that the contractors have made undue claims for price adjustment and variation in some cases keeping all the work stopped. Despite a number of meetings and letters from the authorities, the deadlock remains unresolved.
"They have not even proposed any name for the dispute board in accordance with international contract after their claims were denied," said an insider preferring not to be named.
Roads and Highways Department (RHD) took the project titled Greater Dhaka Sustainable Urban Transport Project or BRT Gazipur-Airport in 2012 to develop the 20.5 kilometre dedicated bus corridor. The RHD was responsible for developing 16-km surface road with six flyovers and stations while Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) was tasked with constructing 4.5-km elevated part of the corridor with stations above.
The Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) was another partner which successfully completed the depot and other infrastructure development.
RHD's portion of the work was supposed to be completed by China Gezhouba Group Co Ltd (CGGC) in 30 months starting from April 13, 2017 after the signing of the contract in October 2016. On the other hand, Jiangsu Provincial Transportation Engineering Group Co LTd (JTEG) was assigned to complete its part by June 2020 under a contract signed on December 15, 2017.
The project cost has surged to Tk 42.68 billion in December 2022 from Tk 20.39 billion approved in the ECNEC on December 1, 2012.
The RHD and the BBA awarded the contracts to the Chinese firms at much lower rates than the engineering cost, as they were the lowest bidders, but this has led the officials to face constant pain of pushing the contractors to continue the work in time.
Though both government agencies have identified various problems like poor cash flow, lack of skilled manpower and inadequate equipment provided by the Chinese contractors, they have cleared 97 per cent of the contract payment to date. However, they have yet to pay a huge amount of dues to the sub-contractors they engaged to carry out the corridor development work.
BBA's Project Director Abul Hossain said they have sought extension finding no other options to complete the work at any cost. "There is no scope to accept the variation except going for the dispute board," he told the FE at his office when asked about the project.
Though the BRT corridor is linked with 131 roads including those between Dhaka and Mymensingh, it is plagued by poor planning and execution. Due to a lack of safety measures, innumerable accidents occurred at the construction site, the deadliest being the collapse of a girder on a moving private car killing five members of a family.
The project has also suffered violent attacks by unruly mobs during the anti-quota movement, further delaying the progress.
smunima@yahoo.com
