Govt asks RHD to revise budget of Dhaka-Ctg highway project

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Munima Sultana
The government has asked the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) to revise the budget of Tk 21.68 billion for the Dhaka-Chittagong highway four-lane project, which has been remaining halted for more than three years over a bidding dispute.
The four-lane project is one of the present Awami League government's priority projects, which was undertaken to resolve heavy traffic congestions between the country's two economic hubs, experiencing a daily traffic of 18,000 vehicles, on an average.
Official sources said revision of the project budget has become necessary for the highway project to accommodate additional expenditure as per present market rates.
"There might be some changes in the design," said an RHD official.
The Communications Ministry has already set a deadline of August 7 to submit the revised budget, which is expected to increase by Tk 2.0 billion from that initially planned.
"The budget for the project may rise to more than Tk 24 billion," said the official preferring anonymity.
He said it would later be approved by the cabinet before starting the project.
The communications minister earlier said the budget size would rise to Tk 23 billion.
The government already pre-qualified 10 firms in the first bidding in March last soon after coming to power and considered the initial budget insufficient for implementing the project in an unhindered manner.
Earlier, the project had hit snags as two prequalification biddings were cancelled in 2006 and 2008 on allegations of unfair competition.
Meanwhile, the government has brought changes in the public procurement rules (PPR) of the project to ensure fair competition in the bidding process as it apprehended that a cartel of local firms might have been formed during the last two biddings.
The last bidding in 2008 was cancelled as nine out of 10 pre-qualified local bidders were finally selected for the project divided into 10 blocks.
In the latest prequalification bidding held in March last, 27 companies were pre-qualified. They will participate in the final round of bidding and the deadline for submission of bids is August 25.