ITDCL set to miss deadline to ready 11.73-km track

When the metro rail company finds it hard to revise the schedule for launching MRT Line-6 amid the deteriorating coronavirus situation, it faces trouble with its Thai contractor for taking more time in completing the first half of the line.
Sources said the Italian-Thai Development Company Limited (ITDCL) is set to miss the deadline to ready an 11.73-kilometre track and stations of the 20.1-km mass rapid transit line-6 (MRT Line-6) by August this year, although it was given one-year extension last year.
"It seems that the company needs another year to complete the work, considering the volume of work which still remains incomplete," said a project insider preferring not to be named.
Out of nine stations, he said, the company has been able to complete the steel roofs of only four stations. It may be able to complete one more station at Pallabi before the end of the contract tenure in August, he added.
Sources said since the beginning, the Thai company has been missing its target of progress as the work is going on at a snail's pace like the Dhaka Elevated Expressway (DEE) project.
Though the DEE project itself has been facing many challenges including hassle of land acquisition, the Thai contractor could not start the work in due time after signing the concessionaire deal in 2013 for its failure to manage funds to invest in the project till 2019.
Sources said the delay in the Uttara-Agargaon part of MRT Line-6 under contract package (CP) 3 and 4 hit the work on other packages.
The CP 7 is to complete electric and mechanical work on the viaducts and stations under the CP 3 and 4 after completion.
The Japanese contractor of CP 8 has already slowed down the test run of metro rail sets as it could not carry out speed test on the viaducts, although it was supposed to start it in June after completing depot site's integration test.
At least Pallabi station is needed to be completed to make the test run over the viaduct as it has crossing to make return, sources said.
"The work of CP 3 and 4 has affected the MRT Line-6 more than the coronavirus," said one of them.
The ITDCL started the work of the contract package 3 and 4 from August 1, 2017 after Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) signed a contract to develop an 11.73 km viaduct from Uttara to Agargaon within 36 months.
It was supposed to complete station structures and rail track on the viaducts up to Agargaon by August 2020 but the company got one-year extension last year for its failure to complete the work in time. The extended time ends next month when the project sees more than 80 per cent progress.
According to the DMTCL's monthly progress report, 82.17 per cent physical progress was recorded in the CP 3 and 4 till June. The Thai company has completed an 11.73-km viaduct and substructures of all stations.
It has completed concourse roofs for Uttara North, Uttara Middle, Uttara South, Pallabi and Mirpur-10 stations but yet to complete roofs for Mirpur-11, Kazipara, Shewrapara and Agargaon stations. Steel roof structures of the first four stations have been readied while the work on other stations is going on.
DMTCL has set the first target to launch the ITDCL's part of the MRT-6 by December 2019. But due to the delay, the time was extended until December 2021.
The DMTCL is yet to revise its new schedule fixing the target of launching the first part, although the project's document shows the completion of the project in 2024.

[email protected]