Construction of the 128-kilometre rail extension between Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar under a Tk 1,852-crore project is yet to begin after receiving the government’s approval for it three years before, Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division sources said.
The sources said the project was approved in July 2010 to construct rail extension between the port city and the country’s most potential tourism spot.
But, the railway ministry, implementation agency of the project, implemented only 0.55 per cent of the project by spending Tk 10 crore in staff salary till June 2013.
The IMED sources said the project was also important as rail connection between the two cities would facilitate the regional communication under the initiative of South Asian Economic Cooperation.
It will also facilitate the rail connectivity between Bangladesh and China through Myanmar, the IMED sources said.
‘The ministry concerned has informed us that the implementation of the project has been delayed as the government is yet to find any foreign partner to assist it in the project and prices of land in the area have become very high,’ Md Saiful Islam, deputy secretary of the IMED of Planning Commission, told New Age.
‘At this moment the government can not afford to pay landowners high prices for acquiring
their land,’ he said adding that the government was desperately looking for foreign development partners to implement the project.
The IMED sources said the land acquisition
process under the project had recently been stopped due to a shortage
of money.
Now the government is trying to negotiate with the development partners including the Asian Development Bank to get fund for the project, the sources said.
The implementation work of the project was supposed to start from July 1, 2010. As per the original plan of the railway ministry, the project is scheduled to be completed by December this year.
The government had made a projection of Tk 1,182 crore in foreign assistance for the project without any consultation with the prospective development partners, the IMED sources said.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina laid down the foundation stone of the project at Narikel Bagan in Cox’s Bazar on April 3, 2011 during her visit in the district.
-With New Age input
