Dhaka-Ctg highway project freed of consultancy glitch after a year; new firm gets the job; govt to purchase 211 vehicles for upazila parishads
The cabinet committee on purchase yesterday approved proposed appointment of a new consulting firm as a consultancy glitch already delayed by a year the upgrading of Dhaka-Chittagong highway.
It gave the approval at a meeting with Finance Minister AMA Muhith in the chair.
The consulting firm is Joint Venture of Consulting Engineering Services (India) Pvt Ltd and Dev Consultants Ltd (of Bangladesh). It will receive Tk 23.88 lakh from the government in consultancy fees.
Expansion of the two-lane highway was initiated in 2006 to complete the work in three years. But implementation of the project is yet to start.
The present government revived the four-lane project on a priority basis and signed a deal with Chinese company Sinohydro Corporation and two local companies– Reza Construction and Tahir Brothers Ltd — on January 10 this year.
The project has been in jeopardy since Pakistani consultant Nespak, which was supposed to monitor the work, suddenly quit in June this year after its demand for higher fees was rejected. It did not respond despite repeated warnings prompting the government to cancel the deal and go for new consultants.
The consultancy row then turned into a legal battle. Nespak filed a writ petition with the High Court, which rejected it. Nespak then moved to the Supreme Court but the apex court in its verdict issued “no order”.
Against this backdrop, the government went for the new consulting firm yesterday.
The delay might make the highway impossible to negotiate as the number of vehicles plying it has crossed 22,000 a day, prolonging a six-hour journey to 10-15 hours.
The country’s busiest highway linking the port city and the capital has become a death trap due to increasing vehicular movement and frequent accidents.
The purchase committee yesterday also approved proposal for procurement of 211 vehicles for upazila parishads at a cost of Tk 87.56 crore. Each vehicle will cost Tk 41.50 lakh on an average.
A decision to buy 471 vehicles for upazila parishads was taken last year. Earlier, 260 vehicles were purchased in three phases.
Of the vehicles, 50 were bought for Tk 32.50 lakh each, 130 for Tk 35.39 lakh each and 80 for Tk 38 lakh each.
The Local Government Division informed the purchase committee that due to exchange rate fluctuation and increase in tax, vehicles of the same quality had to be bought at higher prices in the later stages. All the vehicles were bought from state-owned Progati Industries Ltd.
The committee meeting also approved import of 2.5 lakh tonnes of fertiliser from Tunisia under state-to-state arrangement, and 25,000 tonnes from Morocco in the same way.
