Why delay bedevils mega projects?

Shafiqul Alam The first announcement of establishing metro rail and elevated expressways to solve the city's ever-worsening traffic problem came nearly a decade back and both the ambitious and capital-intensive projects were forwarded with equal priority. Beside addressing the problem of traffic gridlocks, mass transit system, especially metro rail, does also give a mega city more modern look. A modern mass transit system in the city has been long overdue. While appreciating moves to improve and modernise Dhaka's communications network, we must also be mindful of the delay that the mega projects have been facing over the years. The metro rail, to be constructed from Uttara to Sayedabad, is crucial for the mega city, as it will facilitate movement of around 60,000 people per hour during the rush hours. But repeated modification of alignment of the elevated track is delaying its construction. Construction of the proposed Tk 87.03 billion Dhaka elevated expressway was supposed to kick-off this year. However, project contractor, Ital-Thai public limited company, could not arrange necessary fund on time while land acquisition is yet to complete. What is worse, there are several conflicting points that the elevated expressway would encounter with other projects. It is mentionable that most of the highway projects almost always involve land acquisition and in most cases, the displacement of households and small enterprises. New projects, like elevated expressway, frequently affect local groups and communities and as such a proper social impact assessment is essential. Again, the feasibility study and design of the Padma Bridge were completed in 2010 and the construction work was supposed to begin in 2011 with a tentative date of completion by 2014. However, the World Bank (WB) has suspended its US$ 1.2 billion credit to Bangladesh for the Padma Bridge Project due to suspected irregularities in the appointment of consultant and it has lodged official complaint on the issue. The WB will not disburse any fund until it is fully satisfied. This particular issue has made the project uncertain. The present government pledged that construction of the Padma Bridge would be completed during its tenure, however, construction work of the project is yet to start and this means the government would not be able to make the project operational within the period. Often it is heard that the Padma Bridge project could be financed by our own resources, but it is an unrealistic proposition at a time when the government has already borrowed billions of taka from state owned banks. It is a $2.9 billion project and if the government goes for public private partnership (PPP), it would not be an easy task to arrange such a large sum of money. Though, at times, PPP seems to be an easy option, we are lacking enough expertise to implement a project of such a massive scale alone. Let us see the other side of the story -- the failure to implement infrastructure projects on time has already increased project costs up to about 100 per cent. The proposed 6.15 km steel-truss Padma Bridge Project of $ 1.4 billion (approx.) was approved in ECNEC during the tenure of the interim Caretaker government in 2007 and the cost has jumped to $2.9 billion this year. Within a span of four years, the project cost has been doubled. This is not a unique case. The case of Dhaka expressway is nothing different. Initially, it was a build-operate-transfer (BOT) project and the project proponent was Ital-Thai who proposed to build 32 km Elevated Expressway at an approximate cost of $ 0.9 billion back in 2006. Later in 2008, the cost was revised at $ 1.1 billion and in 2011, the estimated project cost now stands at $ 1.2 billion for 21 km. Likewise, the cost of Dhaka subway has also increased substantially. Notably, mega-projects are always risky and there is always a chance of delay and cost over-run, but in our case, projects are facing unlimited delays at the very initial stage thus far. Every time a deadline is fixed making the people enthusiastic, uncertainty over the deadline looms large. Now, mega projects in the country have become synonymous with delay and people have nothing to do but wait in anticipation. The writer can be reached at email: shafiqul0032@yahoo.com