Dhaka-Ctg. 4-lane Highway 1st Phase to be Completed by next Month

[eastwatch]

First phase to be completed next month

Thursday, November 1, 2012
Dhaka-Ctg 4-Lane Highway
First phase to be completed next month

Work on converting the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, the busiest in the country, into a dual carriageway goes on at a snail's pace. At places little or no work is being done. To speed up widening the 192-kilometre Dhaka-Chittagong highway, the communications ministry has set a new target to complete the work in at least 32km of the road by next month.

As per the fresh target, three kilometres of road in Feni and 29 km in Comilla and Chittagong will be upgraded to four lanes. The widened part of the highway is likely to be opened for traffic early next year, said ministry officials.

Communications Minister Obaidul Quader set the deadline after holding several meetings recently with the project's concessionaires and consultant.

Earlier in March, the ministry had fixed a similar target to complete widening 25 km of the two-lane highway by June, but it failed to meet the target due to fund crunch.

With Tk 500 crore in hand now, the ministry is confident of achieving the revised target.

Project officials, however, said the amount will be needed before December to make significant progress in the scheme.

A senior ministry official said, “We need more money to meet the deadline. The money is required for laying stone chips and bitumen on the road.”

The widening work in the rest part (160 kilometre) of the Dhaka-Chittagong highway is underway.

After taking office in 2009, the Awami League government had launched a Tk 2,382 crore scheme to upgrade the two-lane highway to four-lane one in three years.

The project was aimed at easing huge tailbacks which have become a regular occurrence on the highway.

The government in January 2010 entered deals with Chinese Sinohydro Engineering, and Bangladeshi Reza Constructions Ltd and Taher Brothers Ltd to widen the road.

But in the initial phase, valuable time was lost to inept consultancy, frequent change of project director and intervention in land-filling work by some ruling party men.

Though the project finally got underway early last year, it never gained any momentum as the concessionaires faced problems in removing illegal structures along the highway and collecting earth for land-filling, said contractors.

In February this year, they complained of not receiving adequate funds to speed up the work.

The following month the contractors suspended the project and resumed the work in June after receiving their dues.

The government has so far released Tk 645 crore for widening the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. It has allocated Tk 500cr for the project in the current fiscal year, although the project officials pressed for an allocation of at least Tk 1,000 crore for timely implementation of the scheme.

Visiting the highway recently, Obaidul Quader asked the officials concerned to expedite the upgrading work and ensure good quality.

Contacted, Project Director of the Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane project Ibne Hasan Alam said 80 percent land-filling work has been completed on the stretch from Feni to Chittagong, while the rate is 62 percent on the stretch from Daudkandi to Feni.

Construction of culverts, small bridges and three overpasses at as many level crossings on the highway is also going on in full swing, he added.

 

[animelive]

Hope its done by next month :| the traffic jam over there is not tolerable

 

[Gyp 111]

another good news

 

[sexy gun]

Whats the distance between Dhaka and Chittagong ? It seems infra is totally absent in BD !! First this road thing then those internal bridge's issue

 

[animelive]

Whats the distance between Dhaka and Chittagong ? It seems infra is totally absent in BD !! First this road thing then those internal bridge's issue

around 230-300km and ye infra is totally screwed up. traveled across that road to my village last week, took 8 hours to travel the first 75km

 

[SHAMK9]

woaa, two of the biggest Bangladeshi cities weren't connected with big highways before? damn, you guys have a lot of work to be done, good luck and keep growing.

 

[eastwatch]

woaa, two of the biggest Bangladeshi cities weren't connected with big highways before? damn, you guys have a lot of work to be done, good luck and keep growing.

Almost all the roads that we call Zilla roads, but in reality national roads, that connect all the Zilla towns, was built by Sher Shah Suri when he was the Sultan of Bengal and then the Emperor of Hindustan. These roads eroded away because of no repairings during centuries of use. The roads could be distiguished by only by seeing the old large trees all along its lengths. British govt tried to reinstate the roads to its former position. But, it was a half-hearted effort that bore no real fruits.

During the time of President Ayub Khan (1958-1969) of Pakistan the levels of hundreds of kms of roads were raised up by soil banking on top of which a one track concrete slab was laid to allow the small traffics in those days to frequent. People were happy. Some of the segments of this road have been widened since 1971. General Ershad, however, built thousands of kms of roads in the countryside, instead of widening these.

A new economic expansion has made the old roads very crowded, and hence the new efforts to widen the main roads. It is a continuous process and we will see many hundred km of of roads being widened and raised up in the near future. I believe, when the GoB completed the widening of Dhaka-Ctg road, it will find this is not enough. Another new toll road, highway or expressway will certainly be needed to connect the Capital with Ctg and Magnama at the Deep Sea Port.

 

[scholseys]

i was reading wikileaks the other day and completion of this highway was promised by bal to american embassy when they were campaigning, along with padma bridge and few others.

 

[CaPtAiN_pLaNeT]

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Dhaka-Ctg 4-lane project
Problem over revised cost estimate delaying execution

Financial Express :: Financial Newspaper of Bangladesh

Munima Sultana

Faulty calculation of different components in the revised development project proposal (RDPP) has created a new setback to completing the final part of the Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane project.

The Tk. 24 billion project began in 2010 with a target to complete it by December 2013, a year before the end of the tenure of the present government.

But observers said problems over the revision of project cost is lingering its implementation, as only two dry seasons are left for the government to complete the work in time.

Officials said the Roads and Highways Department (RHD), the implementing agency of the country's one of the most important transport projects, proposed to revise the cost of various construction materials for the second time on the grounds of price escalation and design change.

The RHD officials argued that cost of materials increased by almost 25 per cent, which was quite different from the price anticipated in 2010. Besides, there are some changes and additions to the road design.

The RHD sent the RDPP to the Ministry of Communications (MoC) in May, but the MoC is yet to approve it to send to the Planning Commission.

The ministry officials said the members of the steering committee found price escalation of some materials was not rational during a meeting few months ago, and guided the ministry to form a panel of experts in this regard.

The representatives from the Planning Commission and the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) attended the meeting of the steering committee.

The cost of Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane project was first revised to Tk 23.82 billion in 2010 from its initial Tk 21.67 billion of 2006, setting its implementation period up to December 2013. The latest revision proposed the cost at Tk 29.81 billion with extension of the tenure up to 2014.

"The project cost revision is the demand of the time, as the RHD wants to make the highway fit for at least 10 years, keeping in mind the increasing traffic flow on the main economic corridor," said Project Director Ibne Alam Hossain.

He, however, said the ministry has been giving due importance to the project, and hoped that the cost-related hassle would soon be over after the panel of experts is formed.

Some experts alleged that the latest revision was obvious due to failure of the authorities concerned to assess properly the costs of its various components due to lack of insight. They said respective panels of experts have made their recommendations about all large development projects, but the Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane project is being implemented without any such panel.

The MoC officials said the ministry is yet to finalise the members of the panel of experts, which causes delay in assessing the actual cost of the project.

"After the panel of experts is finalised, the actual project cost can be calculated soon," said the officials.

The project has faced various setbacks including irregularities in the bidding process since it was initiated in 2004, the sources said.

The experts said the problems about implementation of the project in time should be resolved without any delay. The highway expansion is very much related with the country's economic growth because of its importance as a strategic route, from the business points of view, between the capital Dhaka and the port-city Chittagong.