The government inked a Tk 3.83 billion deal with a Korean consortium on Monday for supervising construction of two main components of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge (PMB) project which are to be carried out by two Chinese companies.
Project insiders said, with the deal, construction work of the country's longest bridge over the river Padma and its bank protection work would be expedited at the ground level soon.
The Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) has already awarded the China Major Bridge Company (CMBC) work for the 6.15 kilometre bridge construction and the Sinohydro Corporation Limited for over 20 km river training work.
The CMBC has started mobilisation work after signing contract with the BBA on June 17. Signing of the deal with the Sinohydro Corporation of China is likely to be held on November 10 as announced by Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader during the signing ceremony of the Construction Supervision Consultant (CSC) on Monday.
Project Director Mohammad Shafiqul Islam and team leader Cho Nan Min signed the deal on behalf of the BBA and the KEC at the Setu Bhaban.
Pyunghwa Engineering Consultants Ltd, Korea Engineering Consultants Corporation, SUNJIN Engineering and Architecture Comapany Ltd (SUNJIN) of Korea, ACE Consultants Ltd and DevConsultants Ltd (DevCon) of Bangladesh will assist the lead partner KEC to supervise expensive construction part of the project as the CSC for five years.
The Project Office considers the signing of CSC the end of the long-awaited tender process of the project which took over five years following allegation of corruption raised by the World Bank (WB) in the BBA's earlier selection of SNC Lavalin as CSC.
Observers, however said, delay has nearly doubled the cost of estimated Tk 3.50 billion CSC work due to failure to take the WB's allegation into account in time.
The government took the decision to give part of the CSC work to the Bangladesh Army to start the project work without delay after it refused the WB fund in the Padma bridge project and announced to do it with its own fund.
Following the decision, the BBA signed Tk 1.33 billion deal with the Special Works Organisation (SWO-West) of the Bangladesh Army on October 14 to supervise the construction of the two approach roads and a service area development work of the project in association with the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) and the Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC).
Besides, a deal of over Tk 780 million was also signed with the Army for carrying security work which finally raised the CSC cost to nearly Tk 5.95 billion.
The CSC appointment was supposed to be made first among all the five tenders of the Tk 200 billion project, which, the observers say, has put challenges to coordinate with the works already started.
The CSC has to ensure quality and quantity of the construction work including procurement and progress of the work.
During Monday's signing ceremony, Bridge Division Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam, Korean Ambassador to Bangladesh Lee Yun-Young, Panel of Experts Chairman Professor Jamilur Reza Chowdhury and three other experts of PoE Alamgir Mujibul Haque, Shamim Bosnia and Ainun Nishat and BBA Chief Engineer Kabir Ahmed were present.
The minister on the occasion said the CSC work signing was held on Monday after getting approval from the cabinet committee on government purchase and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
He said mobilisation for the main Padma bridge construction has already started with bringing three dredgers, three floating cranes, two tag boats and one anchor at the construction site.
Mr Quader said one shipment of the Chinese company is now waiting for release in Chittagong and more are on the way to the country. Besides, he said many works of the main bridge have been going on in different countries including Germany, Singapore and China.
smunima@yahoo.com