The Bangladesh Railway (BR) has not added any new project in its yearly development plan since the beginning of Covid-19 for its failure to win approval from the authorities concerned.
Sources said railways ministry has not sent any pre-development project proposal (PDPP) or DPP to planning commission (PC) since March 2020.
The PC also refrained from approving uplift projects.
The meeting of project evaluation committee (PEC) was held on some projects during the period, they said, but those were sent back to the ministry for recast.
Of the projects, Dhirarshram ICD terminal and Kalurghat bridge construction were sent back on various grounds.
Besides, the BR could not make any headway in preparing some projects because of its inability to prepare the DPP for not getting development partners.
The BR says 24 unapproved projects have been added in its annual development programme (ADP) this year, but no budget was allotted for not having those approved.
Sources said many of these projects were included in the ADP in continuation of last year's inability to make any headway in their execution.
Official sources say nine projects have been kept unapproved for not getting any development partner as the government has decided to cut budget to mitigate the pandemic-induced socio-economic situation.
The DPP of some projects are now under process as the fund-related problem has been over, they add.
A BR data analysis shows Kalurghat bridge, which was supposed to replace the British-era railway bridge, got approval seven years ago against the PDPP placed on June 10, 2014.
But the DPP of the dual-gauge conversion of Joydevpur-Mymensingh-Jamalpur section has remained pending since 2014 for failing to manage Chinese funds.
The PDPP was approved before the Chinese president's Dhaka tour.
After a technical project that studied upgradation of Dhaka-Chattogram-Cox's Bazar rail corridor, separate projects have been planned and included in the ADP without approval after getting hint of funding from the Asian Development Bank.
The PDPP for these projects, including construction of Chattogram-Dohazari dual-gauge line, metre-gauge conversion of Tongi-Akhaura line and Laksam-Chattogram line into dual gauge, have been under process, BR officials added.
But sources said most of these projects got the ADB's assurances last year after the completion of the feasibility study.
Another year has elapsed, but no move is in sight yet to prepare the DPP.
The Iswardi ICD building project was sent back by the PC after a PEC meeting on June 21, 2019, for recast.
But sources said it is still in the ministry and not sent to the commission for approval, although the BR recast the DPP accordingly.
The PDPP of Dhirarshram ICD was sent back on October 13, 2020, directing the hunt for development partners, including the government-to-government (G2G) arrangement from China.
The ICD was one of the potential projects under the public-private partnership under the G2G basis with Japan.
But for not getting any qualified Japanese private investors, the project was dropped from the PPP list before the outbreak of the pandemic.
The PDPP of broad-gauge line between Satkhira and Munshiganj has also remained pending even after getting approval in 2016 for not getting any funder.
smunima@yahoo.com