MoRTB in a fix with four Chinese cos vying for job

The Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges (MoRTB) is in a fix with the four Chinese companies queuing up for a single project to construct an expressway on the Dhaka-Chittagong corridor under a government-to-government (G2G) arrangement, official sources say.
Though a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed with a Chinese company in February last, three other companies of the same country have now requested the MoRTB in separate letters to sign MoUs in this connection, according to them.
The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has taken up the Dhaka-Chittagong expressway project to cope with the growing volume of traffic in future on the route on its connectivity with other international and regional corridors.
Official sources said the RHD had been conducting a feasibility study to finalise the route and have a detailed design of the over 200-kilometre expressway under public-private partnership (PPP) since 2013 with support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
They said since the Dhaka-Chittagong Expressway project had already been listed as one of the potential PPP projects of the PPP Cell formed under the Prime Minister's Office, there was no scope of implementing the expensive project under any other arrangement.
The MoRTB signed the MoU with China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) Limited on February 8 to carry out the feasibility study and prepare a detailed design of the Dhaka-Chittagong Expressway along with the Mirersharai-Teknaf Marine Drive Road project and Dhaka-Sylhet four-lane project.
But three other companies-China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group Co Ltd (CREEG) and Poly Technologies-in separate letters dated June 22, June 14 and July 14 respectively also expressed their interest to the MoRTB minister to sign MoUs on the same work on a G2G basis.
Sources at Economic Relations Division (ERD) said due to the lack of proper guidelines of the Chinese government on getting loans on the G2G basis, such companies were frequently visiting different ministries to request for project work and signing of MoUs.
Such effort is hardly handled through the ERD, though the division is responsible for arranging loans from any development partner, said an official.
Sources said confusion was also created at the MoRTB as the Chinese companies expressed their interest in some other projects where other development agencies or other Chinese companies were already involved.
These projects include the Mirersharai-Teknaf Marine Drive Road project and the Dhaka-Sylhet four-lane project, Chittagong-Cox's Bazar four-lane road project and a project to construct a Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line on the Khilkhet-Vatara-Kamalapur route and Purbachal-Khilkhet route.
MoRTB and RHD sources said the CHEC had been allowed to conduct the feasibility study on the Dhaka-Sylhet four-lane project but its feasibility study and detailed design were completed under the RHD's technical project funded by the ADB recently.
They said under the ADB's South Asia Sub-regional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) Road Connectivity Project, the government was considering taking funds from the Manila-based development partner for the project.
It is learnt that the ADB is considering funding not only Dhaka-Sylhet four-lane project but also two other four-lane routes that will be constructed from the other side of the Bangabandhu Bridge as part of establishing the Asian Highway-2 corridor.
Discussion is also going on with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for construction of the Chittagong-Cox's Bazar four-lane road under a cross-border network improvement project.
Another official said to avoid such confusion a note was already issued to take a decision on the Chinese companies' interest in different projects.
"We have decided to seek ERD's comment in this connection," said the official preferring not to be named.
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