Moghbazar-Mouchak Flyover
Faulty design halts construction
The work of the 8.25 kilometre Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover has been almost suspended six months after the start of its construction because of faulty design, said officials.
Experts and consultants said that the project cost, estimated at Tk 772.7 crore, could increase due to the delay and initiatives to redesign the flyover while commuters’ sufferings continued because of congestions on the road stretches in the project area. After starting work on a faulty design in February, the local government and engineering department has taken initiatives to redesign the proposed flyover.A teacher of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology’s civil engineering department told New Age on Saturday that about a month ago the LGED
had sent a proposal to the department to redesign the flyover.
‘The construction work remains suspended and it will take about three to four months to redesign the flyover,’ he said.
The consultant also admitted that redesigning and the delay would increase the cost of the project.
The project director, however, claimed that the project’s cost could either increase or decrease.
The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, on February 16 this year inaugurated the project undertaken to ease traffic between the capital’s north and south ends. The project is scheduled to be completed in February 2015.
Australian firm SMEC International and its three local associates ACE Consultants Limited, SARM Associates Limited and Kranti Associates Limited are working as consultants for the project.
The managing director of one of the firms told New Age on Sunday that a major problem was realigning the existing pipelines of different utility services beneath the project area.
‘These areas are very congested where pipelines of many utility services have been installed. At present the project office is facing difficulties in setting up pillars at different points, which requires the pipelines to undergo realignment,’ the consultant said.
He also alleged that they had alerted the LGED about the flyover’s faulty design several times before the start of its construction.
‘The government is planning to complete the construction of the flyover by December this year which seems impossible as the government is yet to start full-scale work,’ he said.
A teacher of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology’s civil engineering department told New Age on Saturday that about a month ago the LGED had sent a proposal to the department to suspend work and redesign the flyover.
The Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover project director, Mohammad Nazmul Alam, told New Age that the project office was aware of the matter before starting construction works.
‘Pipelines of utility services, particularly Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority and Dhaka Power Distribution Company, run beneath the project areas, which has forced us to bring some changes in the design,’ he said.
He claimed that at present the piling work of the flyover was going on.
About Tk 52.95 crore has already been spent on different purposes relating to the project, including land acquisition and utility services, he added.
The project office hopes movement of traffic would be considerably easier at eight turning points of Moghbazar-Mouchak stretch and two level crossings after the construction of the flyover would be completed.
The turning pointrs are – Satrasta, BFDC, Moghbazar, Mouchak, Shantinagar, Malibagh, Chowdhuripara (Rampura) and Ramna police station and the level crossings are – Moghbazar and Malibagh. The flyover will have a total of 15 ramps.
Traffic congestions dust pollution are causing immense sufferings to commuters on roads at Mouchak, Moghbazar, Banglamotor, BFDC and Satrasta in the flyover area.
Jerin Sultana Soma, a service holder who travels from Mouchak to Eskaton every day, said that the slow progress of the flyover’s construction work had aggravated traffic congestions in the area.
Shepon Arif, a resident of Shantinagar, said that the project materials occupied large portions of the roads causing a near constant gridlock.
The total project cost has been estimated at Tk 772.7 crore of which the government will provide Tk 200.47 crore, Saudi Fund for Development Tk 375.25 crore and OPEC Fund for International Development about Tk 196 crore under a joint financing.
The contractors are Danish-Bangladesh joint venture Simplex-Navana and Bangladesh-India joint venture MCCC-4 ACL-ODC.
Courtesy of New Age
