A much-needed lesson RHD learning

Finally, the Dhaka-Chittagong highway has been readied for traffic movement after its widening into a four-lane broadway. The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has already set a target to close the Dhaka-Chittagong Four-lane Project office by December. If the department is able to do so (some bridge infrastructure construction works are still not done), it will be long 12 years to complete, the 193-kilometre highway-expansion work. After lots of ups and downs since the project was initiated in 2004, the RHD will be able to complete one of the government's priority projects, setting an example of constructing, on average, 16 kilometres a year.
The Dhaka-Chittagong corridor, considered economic lifeline of the country, connects the capital, Dhaka, with the country's main port in Chittagong. The country's major portion of billions of dollars worth of trade and business are transported through this route. Ninety per cent of the country's manufacturing companies are situated on the Dhaka-Chittagong economic corridor, making it the busiest internal roadway.         
The necessity of expansion of the Dhaka-Chittagong corridor had been felt within 15 years after it was turned into two-lane in the 1980s. Its increasing rate of traffic volume crossed all previous assumptions. Initially it was assumed that traffic volume on the economic corridor increases at a rate of 10 per cent a year. But RHD counted nearly 30,000 daily traffic trips during its rehabilitation work on the Meghna and Meghna-Gumti bridges. In another study done by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), it is claimed that traffic volume would increase to150,000 for having its link with the proposed regional corridors. Since Bangladesh has been part of different regional and sub-regional corridors, traffic volume is assumed to be multiplying after establishment of Asian Highway, BCIM Corridor, BBIN, BIMSTEC, Bay of Bengal industrial belt.
RHD initiated the 4-lane work in 2004, when the country first clocked six per cent economic growth with boom in garment exports and remittance inflow. Considering the importance of the Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane project, the government also declared it as one of the important projects. But this is the project where tenders were twice cancelled in 2006 and 2008, project directors were changed 12 times, year-by-year budget allocation was meagre to carry the construction work, faced non-cooperation from government's political leaders and so on.
Bringing allegations of experiencing unfair competition among local companies, the government amended the procurement rules in 2009 to allow foreign companies to participate in the bidding.
Besides it faced legal battle with its supervision consultant and conflict with award-winning foreign contractor apart from facing time-to-time crisis for want of earth, soil, sand, stone, bitumen etc. to carry on the highway-construction work unhindered.
RHD also missed the project-completion target thrice for being unable to maintain yearly progress for reasons like frequent changes of PDs, awarding 70 per cent of the works to the Chinese contractor below the engineering cost and deal with influential political, religious leaders at different points of the highway.
Though the Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane project had most of its land acquired way back in the 1960s, the project office could not free the roadside illegal occupations from influential people. For that reason the project office had to alter the highway design several times, changing drainage plan, adding bypass road, flyovers, underpass and overpasses while carrying out the construction work. It goes without saying that the political disturbance like hartal and strike also hampered the project's progress in-between.
As a consequence of all this, people have experienced scaling up the project cost four times, revising the development project proposal. Finally the project office closed the book to Tk 38 billion last year from Tk 21 billion.
In a sum-up it can be said the project work was hampered due to bureaucratic tangle, mismanagement, lack of professionalism, alleged of corruption and lack of vision even after the government declared it as one of the priority projects.
Maybe, taking some of these issues into account, RHD has completed initial groundwork of more than 2,200 kilometres of national and regional highways and is now looking for investors to start different four-lane projects. The Asian Development Bank and Chinese companies have also come forward to finance some of the important arteries, including Joydevpur-Elenga and Dhaka-Sylhet four-lane construction works.
Now the RHD expects completion of these four-lane works would not take a long time. It has already completed feasibility studies, detailed design and so on. Unlike the Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane work, the RHD refined the road design of 2,200-km highway as per regional standards with the technical support of the Asian Development Bank. It separates main highways from service lanes and restricts the movement of people and vehicles of one locality to go to other sides through highway. By inserting tunnels or overpasses in the design, the upcoming highways are tried to be made free from interruption by local vehicles and pedestrians. Apart from this, the RHD has also taken steps to implement a challenging project for building access-control expressway on the entire Dhaka-Chittagong corridor. As scope of turning the corridor into eight-lane one has been slim to adjust with the increasing traffic of the future, the authority has decided to construct highly expensive expressway under public-private partnership, estimating the cost at nearly US$8.0 billion.
Still it can be said the RHD is trying to overcome some problems from its planning stage. The department is yet to complete the work of land acquisition, do resettlement plan and environmental impact assessment. There is no such effort to deal with challenges to be faced from local influential, political leaders as experienced from the Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane project. In absence of setting priority in selecting the projects from 2,200-km studied roads by RHD, chances of missing link are also likely to be experienced as it is found in the cases of many projects, including the Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane project.
Though RHD claimed entire corridor of the Dhaka-Chittagong highway is now of four lanes, road standard from Katchpur bridge to Daudkandi toll plaza is not matched with the standards of the rest of the corridor. The RHD constructed this part of the corridor early 2000s with its old concept of road design. Road design of this part is not the same as the rest of the part. Smooth traffic movement on the economic corridor could not be ensured as construction of flyovers and overpasses taken in the middle of the Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane project work was not completed in time. Besides, improving traffic capacity of Meghna and Meghna-Gumti bridges will take two to three years more to match with the existing highway.
What the RHD has learned from the Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane project is now a case for them to gain a better insight for implementing upcoming four-lane projects. It has to keep in mind, on the one hand, possible generation of traffic volumes from different locality in connection with the growth of agricultural or industrial sectors and on other hand, it will have to take into consideration the importance of maintaining universal standards of roads and facilities for road users to be needed after full establishment of regional, sub-regional corridors. Finally, it has to take holistic approach to planning and constructing roads and highways as well as selecting contractors. Without earning professionalism within the department, real political commitment in real sense cannot be claimed to speed up the process of implementation.
The writer is a Special Correspondent of The Financial  Express.
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