44 RHD projects: Only three on track

While the Roads and Highways Department says 44 of its ongoing projects will be wrapped up this fiscal year, documents reveal only three would end within their original deadlines.

Most of the remaining 41 projects missed their original deadlines more than two years ago. Some projects are delayed by three to four years.

Twenty-three of the 44 projects have gone through cost revisions, show the documents.

Time extension and cost escalations are nothing new for RHD projects and it exposes weaknesses in implementing such work.

An evaluation report of the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division on 49 projects, completed in fiscal 2016-17, shows 41 of them saw both time extension and cost escalation.

Taking up projects without proper feasibility studies and estimation of costs, long delays in tender process, and dividing project work in "small packages" to benefit influential but non-professional contractors are among the key reasons for delays, the report pointed out.

Delays in land acquisition, utility shifting and frequent changes of project directors are also to blame for the RHD's poor show, the report also said.

The RHD is currently implementing 185 projects, including 22 foreign-aided ones. The government allocated Tk 19,656 crore under the Annual Development Programme (ADP) this fiscal year for completing the work.

The RHD has sent a list to the planning ministry, naming 44 projects which they said would be complete this fiscal year.

Recently, the ministry has uploaded on its website lists of all government projects scheduled to be completed this fiscal year. The RHD projects were mentioned there.

An analysis of relevant documents reveals 39 of the 44 projects were supposed to be complete by different dates before June 2021.

The original deadlines of the five others were either December 2021 or June 2022.

One of the five projects was taken to expand a road from Masterpara to Chagalnaiya in Feni. Its initial deadline was December 2021, which was later extended by a year.

"The project will not end in this fiscal year. It might have been added to the list by mistake," an RHD official in Feni told The Daily Star recently.

Another project was to expand a road from Pinguria to Hemra Launch Terminal in Bagerhat. Although the work was supposed to be complete by December last year, the project authorities now hope to end it within June this year.

It means, only three projects are set to be over within their original deadline, said officials.

SOME DELAYED PROJECTS

Building a 700-meter bridge over the Kushiara river in Sunamganj is one of the projects which have been delayed by a long time.

Initiated in June 2014, the project was supposed to end within three years, but the foundation stone was laid in January 2017.

The project was revised twice and the costs rose to Tk 141.38 crore from Tk 127 crore.

The original deadline of the Dhaka-Mawa-Bhanga Expressway Project also expired long ago.

To ensure smooth traffic movement across the Padma bridge, the government in May 2016 took up the project to widen the road involving Tk 6,252 crore.

The project's deadline was April 2019. The authorities then approved a special revision adding Tk 640 crore, mainly for land acquisition.

But, in a rare move, in 2018, a separate Development Project Proposal (DPP) was approved with a cost of Tk 4,111.85 crore for including more elements in the project. June 2019 was fixed as the new deadline.

The total cost rose to Tk 11,003 crore.

A DIFFERENT CASE

The RHD in 2013 had taken up a project to build three new bridges in Kanchpur, Meghna and Gumti areas on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway and rehabilitate the existing bridges on the highway.

Funded by Japan, the work was completed within the deadline of December 2019. Tk 1,388 crore was saved as well.

The RHD later completed some additional work with that money.

The work would be over within this fiscal year, said officials.

Contacted, RHD Chief Engineer AKM Manir Hossain Pathan said, "The progress in projects has been hampered for more than two years due to Covid-19 pandemic.

"All five 'M's -- money, manpower, materials, machinery and methods -- of project management were affected by Covid, which caused the delays," he told The Daily Star on Thursday.

Asked about cost escalations and delays in many projects even before the pandemic, he said officials start work on the basis of feasibility studies.

"But when they go to the field for the implementation, changes need to be made considering the reality, which leads to project revisions."

Asked whether they had enough capacity to complete projects on time, he said they were working to increase their manpower. "Once we have enough manpower, 90 percent of our problems will be solved."

He also said delays in land acquisition and utility shifting are also responsible for the failure to complete physical work on time.