Revised project awaits PMO\\\'s nod

CHITTAGONG, Apr 17: The revised Karnaphuli Bridge approach road four-lane project is awaiting approval from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
When contacted over phone, assistant project director and executive engineer told the FE Wednesday afternoon that the original project had a five-kilometre approach road but the revised project has another three-kilometre approach road on the Patiya side on the south end of the Karnaphuli 3rd Bridge.
"The project has been extended and the whole project cost worth Tk 2.83 billion will be met from the Kuwait Fund which was approved by the ECNEC (Executive Committee of the National Economic Council) on March 11 last," he said.
The project is now lying with the PMO and once the PM approves it, the process for tendering would start, he said adding that they are expecting the PMO approval any time this month.
Meanwhile, the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) in Chittagong has abandoned the upgradation of four lanes of Bahaddarhat-Karnaphuli Bridge approach road project after two years when work of the same was scheduled to be completed.
About Tk 200 million has already been spent for construction of road bridges and culverts, removal of electric poles and other civil works in the project although a very negligible amount was allotted by the government over two years.
According to an executive engineer of the recently revised Karnaphuli Bridge Project, 12 per cent work of the original project was completed by the contractor concerned and the expenditure of the government was Tk 110 million.
People of the port city have been deprived of the benefit of the Karnaphuli 3rd Bridge since opening of the bridge in October 2010 only because the four-lane expansion project undertaken in September 2011 could not be implemented due to lack of adequate attention to the project for causes better known to the officials concerned of the RHD in Chittagong.
The RHD got approval of the Bahaddarhat intersection to Karnaphuli 3rd Bridge Approach Road four-lane expansion project by the ECNEC chaired by the Prime Minister in 2009 at an estimated cost of Tk 1.425 billion, which was later enhanced to Tk 1.60 billion.
The project of four-lane approach road was abandoned due to non-cooperation of the government's implementing agencies as the required fund was not allocated in earnest, city planners alleged.
Sources told this correspondent that only Tk 100 million was allotted in the two years' span (2011 and 2012), while the entire project was scheduled to be completed in 18 months between September 2011 and March 2013.
The project was undertaken at the cost of Tk 1.60 billion funded primarily from the surplus amount of the Karnaphuli 3rd Bridge Project under Kuwait Fund.
Sources further said that the contracting firm concerned could not proceed speedily with the required civil works as the local administration and the implementing agency failed to acquire the lands on both sides of the project, remove illegal grabbers of lands, electric poles, WASA lines, gas pipe lines, telephone lines etc.
On the other hand, the contractor had spent a large amount, much more than the allotted money, in the civil works like constructing office at the site, engaging construction workers, constructing workers' shed, security sheds, rest house, workers' accommodation etc by mobilising loan from banks at a high interest rate.
The Karnaphuli 3rd Bridge construction project cost was fixed at Tk 6.51 billion including an approach road from the Bahaddarhat intersection to the Bridge's southern end on the Cox's Bazar-Chittagong highway that also connects Bandarban hill district. Actual cost on account of the Karnaphuli 3rd Bridge was Tk 3.69 billion and thus Tk 2.82 billion was saved in the project.
As the RHD authority wanted to divert the surplus from the project with the Kuwait Fund, the foreign funding agency agreed to it considering that people's woes would have remained the same without expansion of the approach road because this Chittagong-Cox's Bazar-Bandarban highway is used everyday by millions of people from the three districts.