The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has again come up with a third project for repairing the Meghna and Meghna-Gumti bridges within a span of four years despite a similar project going on at present.
The officials at the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges said on Wednesday they had recently requested the Planning Commission (PC) to approve an RHD project involving Tk 421.84 million (42.184 crore) to repair the Meghna and Meghna-Gumti bridges on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway.
Earlier, the government had allocated Tk 20.64 billion (2,064 crore) for two projects for the purpose of repair and maintenance of both the bridges. One of them was completed three years ago and the other is going on.
Four years back in 2012, the RHD undertook the first project involving Tk 4.37 billion. The Bangladesh Army on behalf of the RHD completed the repair work on the bridges under the project in June 2013.
Currently the RHD, under the second ongoing project that involves Tk 84.87 billion, is working on repair and rehabilitation of the faulty Meghna and Meghna-Gumti bridges at a cost of Tk 16.27 billion.
In April 2013, the government approved the project for constructing the 2nd Kanchpur, Meghna and Meghna-Gumti bridges and rehabilitation of the faulty Meghna and Meghna-Gumti bridges.
Under this project, the government set aside Tk 1.84 billion for repairing superstructure and Tk 14.43 billion for sub-structure of the Meghna and Meghna-Gumti bridges.
Nearly six years ago, signs were noticed of damage to the Meghna and Meghna-Gumti bridges because of river-bed scouring and damage to the expansion joints.
Road transport and bridges ministry officials said the RHD proposed involvement of the Bangladesh Army again in doing the maintenance and repair work on both the bridges under the proposed Tk 421.84 million project.
Colonel Iftekhar Anis, a project insider, told the FE: "Now some scouring was noticed at some pillars, especially at the 6th and 7th pillars of the Meghna bridge. The Meghna-Gumti bridge also shows some signs of fresh damage. So, repair is imperative at this moment."
He claimed that some signs of fresh damage had been detected at some pillars where there were no problems earlier.
"Since the fresh signs of damage have been found at some pillars, the new repair project has been prepared."
On approval of the project by the PC, "we would start repair work on the bridges soon to complete it within a year," Col. Anis told the FE.
A PC official said they received a fresh project proposal involving Tk 421.84 million from the RHD for repairing the Meghna and Meghna-Gumti bridges. "We are scrutinising it before giving the approval."
"Within a span of four years, spending a total of Tk 21.06 billion for repairing two bridges is highly ambitious for a poor country like Bangladesh. The government should give a second thought to the bridges and the high expenditure for repair work," he told the FE requesting anonymity.
He said it could be possible to build a one-kilometre-long four-lane bridge with the funds allocated for the repair work three times.
Experts said the Meghna Bridge was under threat as riverbed scouring left several piers vulnerable while the high volume of traffic and overloaded trucks were damaging the deck.
There had been extensive damage to the expansion joints and hinge bearings of the bridge. The RHD engineers blamed it on the very high volume of traffic on the two-lane bridges and erosion of the riverbed near the pier foundation.
The Meghna Bridge on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway was opened to traffic in 1991 when the authorities estimated that around 5,000 vehicles would use it every day. Now, the traffic is four times that figure.
The 1,410-metre Meghna-Gumti Bridge was built by a Japanese firm in 1995.
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