BBA fails to use large part of fund meant for Padma Bridge

The Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) has decided to return 32 per cent of the fund earmarked for the Padma Bridge project in the current fiscal year as it will not be able to complete the targeted work during the period.
Sources said the decision to return Tk 23.91 billion from its budget allocation was taken after a mid-term review of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project (PMB) was done last week.
They said after reviewing the extent of work going on in its five areas, the project office informed the authority that they would not be able to spend more than Tk 50.09 billion during the fiscal year 2015-16.
Until December, the PMB project office could spend only Tk 9.0 billion.
The finance ministry allocated Tk 74 billion which was the highest for a single project. The project office also could not spend entire fund during the last two fiscal years.
Since the government decided to construct the country's longest bridge over the mighty river from its own fund in 2013, the BBA received Tk 10 billion in FY 2013-14 and Tk 81 billion in FY 2014-15. But the authority could spend only Tk 1.0 billion in the first fiscal and Tk 45 billion during the last fiscal.
However, the BBA sources said, of the fund to be refunded, Tk 11.89 billion will be proposed to be diverted to another mega project to construct the first-ever tunnel under river Karnaphuli.
"As there has been a good progress in Karnaphuli river tunnel project, a decision was taken to keep nearly Tk 12 billion for mobilisation work of the project," said one of them.
The BBA expects that the loan procedure from the Chinese Exim Bank would be completed before the end of the current fiscal year. Tk 9.47 billion was shown as project aid in the revised budget.
Project Director M Shafiqul Islam expressed his optimism about spending the revised amount of fund before the end of the current fiscal as material development work for different components is going on in different countries.
He said a good amount of money will be needed to clear the payment as steel work of the bridge is going on in China.
"We have so far been within our target. But we have decided to refund the unused money earlier than last year so that it is used in the other important projects," the PD told the FE at his office.
The BBA had sought Tk 74 billion with an aim to start construction work of the 6.15 kilometre bridge in full swing as well as 12 km river training work as contracts for these two costly components were signed.
With the revision, the BBA's budget allocation for the current fiscal year will be Tk 76.70 billion against the allocation of Tk 88.71 billion. The authority has a budget of Tk 14.71 billion for land acquisition work of the Dhaka Elevated Expressway.
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