Tunnel deal set for signing with China on June 29

Munima Sultana | Published: June 23, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

The government is set to sign deal on June 29 with China to construct country's maiden tunnel across Karnaphuli River, after a lot of improvisations that led to cost overrun.Â Â Â Â
According to latest calculations, official sources said, the cost inflated by around $60 million over the figure assessed by experts. Bangladesh Bridges Authority (BBA) has already sent proposal to the specialised cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) for signing deal on the Karnaphuli tunnel project finally involving a higher cost of $705.8 million.
The CCEA of the government is scheduled to sit tomorrow (Wednesday).
Officials said if approved, the signing ceremony of the Karnaphuli tunnel would be held in China on June 29. The agreement is set to be signed between the Bangladesh Bridges Authority and Chinese government-designated company China Communication Construction Company Limited (CCCC).
Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader would lead an eight-member delegation to witness the signing ceremony.
Though there was lack of expertise in the country in assessing the commercial proposal on river-tunnel project, actual cost of the project was finalised after lot of hassles that led to some worry about its proper evaluation.
Sources said the actual figure of the project cost saw ups and downs several times to follow the recommendations by a British independent consultant and BUET experts.
They said the BBA-appointed independent consultant initially interpolated some items into the commercial proposal during his evaluation process, which caused cost hike to $679.16 million from CCCC-proposed $656 million.
But at the negotiation level, the experts and inter-ministerial meeting had cut the cost to $646 million.
"At the last moment, cost again went up to over $ 700 million for adding some components like service-area development, setting up monitoring software and introducing a tugboat for smooth implementation and safety reasons," said one source.Â He said cost for the service area was estimated $47 million, software installation over $ 3.0 million and tugboat over $ 9.0 million. Tugboat is a requirement of Bangladesh Navy.
Over the security issue, the government took the decision to provide the task of security to the naval force. Â
On grounds of security, the navy raised the demand for tugboat and $9.0 million was added up to the project for its purchase purpose, said an official involved with the project.Â Sources said tugboat will be used to help carry construction materials from deep sea at all odd weather.
The tunnel has been enlisted as a government's priority project after a memorandum of understanding was signed during the Prime Minister's visit to China on June 9, 2014. The BBA also signed a MoU with the CCCC on December 28, 2014 to start necessary preparation.
Though there was criticism about awarding the million-dollar work to the company which was involved in the project's feasibility study, officials, however, ignored the matter. They said the company was a Chinese government-designated one.
The BBA is yet to get approval for the project from the Planning Commission. A source said as per the project-evaluation committee's recommendation, the BBA proposal with the final project cost was sent to CCEA for approval.
Earlier, the Planning Commission had turned down the BBA proposal for its seal of approval on the Karnaphuli Tunnel project on grounds of incomplete groundwork and flaws in cost analysis, including land acquisition, resettlement action plan and environmental assessment.
Joint-venture Chinese and Hong Kong consulting firms CCCC and ARUP, after the feasibility study, proposed the tunnel in 2013 with a total length of over 6.0 kilometres, including two approach roads. The cost was estimated at US$692 million.
The CCCC also showed interest in constructing the tunnel under G2G arrangement at the time. As per the study, the multilane tunnel is planned to construct at the estuary of the Karnaphuli to ensure connectivity of Chittagong city with the proposed deep-sea port and Cox's Bazar tourist town.
The tunnel location was confirmed through the river with Navy College on one side and Korean Export Processing Zone (KEPZ) and Karnaphuli Fertiliser Company (KAFCO) on the other bank.
It is expected that, apart from facilitating connectivity, the tunnel would help expedite industrial growth and urbanisation in other parts around the river.
Â Â Â smunima@yahoo.com