Contracts under different packages of the first metro rail project have expired before completing necessary work, forcing the Dhaka metro rail company to extend the contract period for at least one year.
Sources said Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) has already extended the tenure of contract packages (CPs) 3 and 4 and it may need to do the same for CPs 2 and 8.
All these packages are linked with development of the first half of the elevated 20.1-kilometre corridor of Mass Rapid Transit line-6 (MRT 6) and development of rolling stock including supply of 24 sets of metro rail and 52 pieces of depot infrastructure at Uttara.
Sources said none of the contractors was able to complete their respective work in time, showing various causes including the coronavirus pandemic situation for the delay.
According to sources, Italian-Thai Development Company responsible for completing 11.73-kilometre viaduct from Uttara to Agargaon under the CPs 3 and 4 has already been allowed a year till August 2021 to complete rail track and station development work.
But the company which had signed the contract in August 2017 is unlikely to complete the rest of rail track and development work of nine stations by August next. The contract may be extended further, they added.
The contract of the rolling stock under CP 8 is also likely to be extended as manufacturing and shipment of 24 sets of metro trains will not be completed by December this year as per the deal signed with a Japanese consortium.
The Kawasaki Heavy Industry and Mitsubishi Corporation, as per the contract signed on September 13 in 2017, was supposed to supply all 24 sets of trains or 144 coaches by December 2021.
Sources said the company may be able to complete manufacturing of 14 sets by December.
Official sources said work of CP 8 has been hampered as nearly nine months elapsed due to failure to start shipment of the first train set in April last year following the global coronavirus situation which halted the activities of shipping lines.
The process of getting clearance from the DMTCL was also delayed as its technical team failed to get special permission from the Japanese government to visit Japan amid the restrictions on travel to the country till January this year.
The DMTCL only got the first set of train on April 23 after it had managed to carryout its inspection by a third party.
It has now planned to bring five sets of manufactured trains by September as the contractor said they need six-month time to complete necessary tests including integration test of the first set train.
DMTCL has been implementing MRT line-6 since 2016 after signing contracts under eight packages. Of the total, CP 1 which was to develop the land of the depot was completed one year before the tenure.
The CP 2 under which infrastructures have been developed at the depot site is also likely to miss the September deadline as most work of infrastructures still remains unfinished.
The Chinese company -- Sino Hydro Corporation -- was awarded contract to develop 52 infrastructures in September 2017 but it failed to complete 13 structures fully.
Though officials said work of CPs 5, 6 and 7 may be completed within a stipulated time, sources said, completion of work on these three packages depends on the completion of work of other packages.
The DMTCL official, however, said the expiry of the tenure of all these packages would not hit the MRT line-6 project as all these packages have been designed targeting early commission of MRT-6.
"We are still on the track to meet deadlines of all these packages," said an official preferring not to be named.
According to the development project proposal, the MRT line-6 project is scheduled to be completed by 2024.
But the government first set the target to launch the first part of the 20.1-km MRT line-6 from Uttara to Agargaon in 2019 which was later extended until December 16, 2021.
But the authority may also miss the deadline due to a delay in completing the work for reasons like coronavirus outbreak. The MRT line-6 is being developed from Uttara to Kamalapur Railway Station.
smunima@yahoo.com