Make accountability a core part of RHD projects

It is disappointing to know of yet another government project undergoing frequent deadline extensions, leading to cost escalations as a result. The project, taken up in January 2017 by the Roads and Highways Department (RHD), was to reconstruct a 38km stretch of the Jashore-Khulna national highway, with an initial budget of Tk 321.56 crore and a deadline till December 2019, as approved by the Ecnec. So far, the project deadline has been extended three times, but even that does not seem enough. Now, the Planning Commission has set a new deadline of June 2022, but the newest revisions—if approved—would mean an overall cost of Tk 371.52 crore.

We, alongside the Planning Commission, are left to wonder about the causes of such delays and revisions leading to so much of public money being spent, especially for a mere 38km segment of a national highway. The reconstruction work was taken up by citing the insufficient thickness of the road. But more than four years later, it is now rutted (due to overloaded trucks plying on the road) and changes need to be made in the project design. The plan to build three new truck bays has been added to the project, and more money is required to "raise the height of the shoulder of the road to widen it." According to the executive engineer of Jashore RHD, it was only in March and May 2018 that the contractors could be awarded the work after the tendering process was completed, more than a year after the project was first approved.

There are countless government projects like this one that face awfully lengthy delays. Meanwhile, public resources are squandered away for years with no visible, let alone useful, results. There are reportedly at least 80 RHD projects for which time extensions were sought in the last fiscal year, so how many other projects from different arms of the state are in a similar state is anyone's guess. This cannot go on if resources are to be allocated for these plans, but the public is not getting what they are owed in terms of improved infrastructure and services.

We urge the Planning Commission to look deeper into the plans of such projects and ask project leaders for justifications for the delays, before requests for extended deadlines and increased budgets are granted. If such delays are allowed to take place unchecked, we believe it will do more harm than good for the country's overall development.