The government is contemplating accommodating its recruited staff for the Padma Multipurpose Bridge (PMB) project for other purposes, though there is no legal scope to consider them for another project.
More than 150 staffers engaged in the bridge project have been passing days in fear of losing jobs, though they have expressed their excitement at completion of the iconic structure.
Of them, 63 were recruited directly through a competition at the time of the project's beginning in 2009-2010, said sources.
Apart from the staffers at the project office, over 400 Bangladeshis are working at the bridge construction sites under contractors. Nearly 100 of them are technical persons who are passing days in uncertainty too.
"We all are happy to see that the Padma Bridge is finally ready. But at the same time, we all are passing days in fear of what would be our fate," said a staffer of the project office, preferring not to be named.
Officials of Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA), the executing agency of the Padma Bridge project, however, said they had been working to incorporate these employees, though adjusting them to other projects under the BBA was not legally possible.
While recruiting the staffers for the project office, it was clearly stated in their appointment letters that their job tenure would expire with completion of the project. This clause has created a barrier in incorporating them in other projects.
As per a verbal directive received from the cabinet last year, the BBA is now looking for scope of accommodating them into the Operation and Management system of the two tier bridge, as forming a company for O&M is under consideration to keep the steel-truss composite bridge fit for next 100 years, said the officials.
They also said the BBA Board had recently approved the plan to form the government-owned company to carry the O&M of the country's longest and state-of-the-art bridge.
Asked, M Shafiqul Islam, project director of the Padma Bridge, also said the project office had sympathy for the staffers.
Recognising their contribution, Mr Islam said a request had also been sent to the authorities concerned to involve the project staffers in other purposes.
A request letter was sent to the authorities concerned in this regard on August 24, 2021. Sources said the issue was also discussed at the Parliamentary Standing Committee and Project Steering Committee.
Employee sources said they were recruited for four to five years - until completion of the project; but it had been 13 years now and many of them had lost the age limit to apply for other projects.
Expressing their worries regarding incorporating them in O&M, the staffers said only a year was left to the end of the project while opening of the O&M company would take more time.
"If the company is not formed within next year, we will have to starve with our family members," added an employee.
smunima@yahoo.com