Any tangible task is yet to start on a planned tunnel under the river Jamuna as confusion over whether to do feasibility or pre-feasibility study clouds the way, sources said.
They said though Bangladesh Bridges Authority (BBA) took an initiative to conduct a feasibility study with its own funds last year, it changed its stance for a pre-feasibility study upon recommendation from the Planning Commission.
According to the recommendation that came from a PEC (project evaluation committee) meeting on March 27 this year, the BBA sent the technical proposal to the PC for a pre-feasibility study recently. The PEC meet on the new project was held on October 22.
But confusion crept in after the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) took a decision two days after the PEC meeting on conduction of feasibility study by the BBA."It has already a year gone to take the decision to start feasibility or pre- feasibility," said one source.
BBA's first initiative to conduct the feasibility study from its own funds was taken after having not received any response from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to provide technical support in the Jamuna tunnel project.
Construction of the Jamuna tunnel featured in the joint statement signed by Japan and Bangladesh during Bangladesh Prime Minister's visit to Japan on May 25-28 in 2014.
JICA later aired doubt viability of the tunnel construction.
The Japanese funding agency argued that the project might not be cost-effective following construction of dedicated rail bridge near the existing Jamuna road-cum-rail bridge, frequent change of course of the river and scouring.
Sources said due to JICA's reluctance, a meeting held under the auspices of Prime Minister's Office on February 02, 2016 decided to conduct the feasibility study through the BBA to understand viability of the multimodal tunnel at the cost of government's owned funds.
Almost two years have gone by since the decision on the study was taken with no tangible progress having take place, said one of them.
Some BBA officials said they had already informed the PC about the ECNEC decision and asked about source of funding -- BBA's own funds or government grants -- for carrying of the Tk 1.32-billion work.
BBA estimated the cost of feasibility study at Tk 1.32 billion and pre-feasibility study Tk 180 million.
smunima@yahoo.com