Rajuk to cancel deals with firms building Uttara flats

Shamsul Huda Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha (Rajuk) may finally cancel contracts with the firms which were awarded the contracts for construction works of its Uttara apartment project. The progress of construction works at a snail's pace in the last 15 months is the main reason for this, project officials said. A Rajuk official said the firms were given 30 months' time to construct eight thousand apartments in block A. The frustrating 5.0 per cent of works so far about physical progress about the project in 15 months' period - half of the time for completion of the project's construction - has dissatisfied the Rajuk authority. The contracts were awarded to the construction firms owned by two ruling party lawmakers and despite issuance of several letters, there was little progress in their work, according to sources. A Rajuk source said, "If we file cases against the construction firms at this moment, there would be a legal battle. So we are giving them time to surrender the projects at their will." He said, "Already we have issued them final letters and if there is no progress even after that, we may cancel the contracts anytime." The Rajuk has already allotted the under-construction apartments to the applicants for such apartments through the system of a lottery and January 2015 was set as the hand-over time. A person who received an allotment letter to this effect said even if Rajuk goes for a re-tender at this stages, the project's cost will increase and the lottery-winners will have to pay more. He said the lottery-winners have already deposited a certain amount of money to Rajuk after their getting the letters of allotment for the apartments. "It is uncertain whether the apartments would be constructed within the time-frame. And our money is being stuck with Rajuk," he said. If the contracts would have been cancelled earlier and new firms were appointed, the progress of construction could have reached a satisfactory level within these 15 months, he added. He said it is Rajuk which is at fault as its authorities did not cancel the work order at the initial stage. The Rajuk-funded Tk 90 billion Uttara apartment project was initiated to help address the acute housing problem in the capital city, by providing apartments to the people at costs lower than the prevailing market prices. The authority took a plan to build 20 thousand apartments in three blocks (A, B, C) by constructing 223 sixteen-storeyed buildings each with eight units on every floor. As per its planning schedule, Rajuk awarded the construction job in block A through the process of tendering at the national level to two local companies which had foreign partners. A Rajuk source requesting for anonymity said the two firms are Ena Dunga and BFL-HCL. Both the two joint venture construction companies are owned by two sitting members of parliament. A top Rajuk official said despite repeated requests, the construction companies did not speed up their work. The firms blamed high costs of construction materials for delays in their construction works, he added. An official of the Public Works Department (PWD) said, "We are just the consultant to Rajuk's apartment project. We cannot say anything but the Rajuk should have cancelled the contracts earlier when they saw that progress was slow." The Rajuk issued the work orders to the two joint venture firms in June last year and December 2014 was then fixed as the deadline for completion of its work. When contracted, a member of parliament who is involved in one of the two construction firms brushed aside the matter saying, "May be my firm is involved but I have no ties with the job. My joint venture partner deals with the matter (Uttara apartment project)."