Execution of ADP projects in road sector goes slow

The development projects in the road transport sector witnessed slow pace of implementation during the first half of the current fiscal year.
Implementation of the projects under the annual development programme (ADP) was little more than 19 per cent - much lower than about 30 per cent in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year, sources said.
The poor performance was also reflected in cases of the foreign-funded projects of the Road Transport and Highways Division (RTHD). Officials attributed the poor performance to the effect of the Gulshan café attack incident on July 1 last year.
Disbursements in this case registered only 9.38 per cent during the July-December period of FY 2016-17 as compared to 65.31 per cent during the same period of FY 2015-16, according to sources.
Some 116 projects, including 18 foreign-aided ones, were being implemented under the RTHD with an ADP allocation of Tk 77.91 billion.
Roads and Highways Department (RHD), Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA), Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) and Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) were implementing the projects.
The performance of the agencies was reviewed at a recent meeting in the conference room of the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges.
RHD officials, however, pointed out that slower ADP progress was natural due to nature of the works in the sector. They expressed the optimism that the scenario would be improved in next two to three months.
"The volume of road sector works was not slow. The performance record will go up in next few months and reach to 100 per cent before the end of the fiscal with the changes to the nature of works," an official told the FE, after the meeting.
However, he said, the attack on Holey Artisan on July 1 last year had affected the disbursements of foreign-aided projects being implemented under the DTCA.
According to RTH report, only 2.15 per cent of the allocation was disbursed in the first half of the current fiscal against 38.92 per cent during the corresponding period of previous year.
DTCA mostly implementing Japan-assisted projects, which were delayed due to security concerns of Japanese consultants.
 smunima@yahoo.com