The government has now decided to implement apartment construction in the Block B of its Uttara Apartment Project to accommodate those who got allotment in the Block A earlier, said an official of the ministry of housing and public works (MoHPW).
The government will float tender for construction of apartments in the Block B following the complexities arisen over the implementation of the construction of 6,500 apartments in the Block A, tender of which was floated first out of the total three blocks.
In February 2012, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) and the Public Works Department (PWD) signed four deals with four consortiums for constructing 79 buildings, each having 16 storeys and 64 apartments at the A block. There are 'B' and 'C' blocks having 72 buildings each under the project worth Tk 90.31 billion to be completed by June 2016.
The four consortiums are: Ena Properties and Korean firm Donga, Ena-DDJ, Building for Future Ltd (BFL) and Hamid Construction Ltd (HCL) and Anam Traders. Of the four contractors, Ena-Donga and Ena-DDJ got work order for constructing 61 buildings out of the total 79, BFL-HCL got 16 buildings and Anam Traders got work order for two buildings.
Three consortiums except for Anam Traders were supposed to complete 75 per cent work by February 2014. But Ena-Donga and Ena-DDJ could complete 4.0 per cent work, BFL-HCL 16 per cent and Anam Traders 15 per cent work against 56 per cent work.
BFL-HCL later expressed their inability to construct four buildings out of the awarded 16 buildings on the grounds of various problems.
The contractors were supposed to construct 6,500 flats of 1,250 sq ft in the A block. In B and C blocks, the sizes of the apartments are 1,050 sq ft and 850 sq ft, as per the lay-out plan. But now the government will change the size of the apartment of the B block to 1,250 sq ft as the allotees got apartment of 1,250 sq ft in the A block. The government is supposed to construct 18,732 flats in 223 buildings in three blocks.
The official said a total of 5,000 apartments were allotted and allotment of another 1,500 is pending. The closing date of for these 1,500 apartments was 31st December 2013. But the response was poor due to the sluggish implementation process of the project.
Besides, about 1,000 allottees out of the primary 5,000 have not paid the second installment out of their frustration over the progress of the housing project. Many have already withdrawn their deposit while many others have applied to withdraw their money, he added.
Under the circumstances the MoHPW and Rajuk on February 16 this year decided to take some fresh and realistic moves including floating of tender for the B block to retain the confidence of the clients and protect the image of the government and Rajuk.
"Under the new moves, construction work of 72 buildings will be awarded among many experienced and quality contractors for implementation of the project in time. The selection process of the contractors will be completed within ¾ months," said the official, preferring anonymity.
Meanwhile, MoHPW Minister Engineer Mosharraf Hossain visited the Uttara Apartment Project at sector 18 Wednesday. He said the government has cancelled the agreements with the contractors who have breached the conditions of the contract. Tender of these buildings will be floated soon, he added.
Ena-Donga and Ena-DDJ could not complete any of the work they mentioned in their work schedules submitted 22 months ago, said the ministry official.
"We issued them reminder 48 times during this time but without any result. Rather they showed different excuses and asked for money," he said.
Relating to allegation of full payment to Ena-Donga and Ena-DDJ, the official said they got a work order of Tk 25 billion and submitted a bill of Tk 220 million to Rajuk.
"The Rajuk chairman informed the minister that the implementing agency paid a total of Tk 1.8 million to those consortiums," he said.
