Bangladesh Railway runs slowest among the fast-track projects moving on slow lanes as completion of its two megaprojects looks far behind extended timelines, insiders say.
Three other projects are also on the weak trajectory as those are struggling with implementation delays over the years, they said Friday.
However, three of the fast-track schemes-Padma Bridge, MRT line-6 of Dhaka metro and Rooppur nuclear power plant-are termed on track maintaining their targets against the schedule, the sources said.
Different government ministries and agencies are now implementing eight fast-track projects aimed at giving Bangladesh's infrastructure and energy-supply situations an upbeat in tune with the country's socioeconomic graduation progress.
BR's Tk 392.46 billion Padma rail-link project is seen to be in the worst position in terms of implementation status as the state-owned agency had completed only 50 per cent of its total physical works till December, official sources say.
The extended timeline for the rail-track installation is up to June 2024. It started work six years back, in January 2016.
In May 2016, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) approved the project to be implemented at a cost of Tk 349.89 billion between January 2016 and June 2022.
In May 2018, the ECNEC revised the project cost to Tk 392.47 billion and also extended the deadline by two years to June 2024.
The Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) recently suggested placing "the highest importance" on completing the project by June 2024.
The BR performing is also being termed bleak in installing its Tk 180.34 billion Dohazari-Ramu-Cox's Bazar-Ghundum railway as it had completed only 66 per cent of the works till December last despite 4-5 years having elapsed in the meantime.
The rail-setting task is scheduled to be completed in June this year. But this project has also been revised with cost overrun and time escalation up to this coming June.
Officials of the BR say the deadline for the project is likely to be extended over again.
A senior BR official said that the implementation progress of both the projects had remained slow for the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Tk 43.74 billion Pyra seaport project is also in poor shape as 20 per cent of its works still remained unimplemented till last December, an IMED report shows.
Pyra Port Authority under the Ministry of Shipping has been executing the government-funded seaport-development project since July 2015.
Also, the project-implementing agencies, including Power Division, Roads and Highways Department (RHD), energy division and shipping ministry, couldn't get to their targets on the Tk 359.84-billion-cost Mahes-hkhali-Matarbari integrated infrastructure-development project as only 52 per cent of the total works have so far been done.
The Power Division is setting up a 2X600-megawatt coal-fired power plant, the shipping ministry constructing the deep-sea port, energy division is developing the energy-supply system and RHD is constructing roads and bridges under the megaproject on multimodal business hub.
Similarly, the setting up of Tk 160 billion Ramplal 2X660MW power plant has also missed several deadlines as it was to be completed by August last.
Joint-venture Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Limited (BIFPCL) had signed the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) of India for completing installation of the coal-fired plant within 41 months until August 2020.
"The Indian contractor had missed the deadline and extended it by one more year to August 2021. The company has so far failed to supply power to the national grid," a senior Power Division official told the FE.
A Planning Commission official said that although the project had been taken in 2009, it is "unfortunate that the country has yet to get supply from the base-load power plant in spite of highest efforts made by the authorities concerned".
Asked about the delays, the Power Division official said: "The contractor has failed to comply with the contract in time due to the Covid pandemic. So, the government had to extend the deadline by one year."
BIFPCL is executing the project at a cost of Tk 160 billion with an avowed aim of enhancing Bangladesh's cumulative power-supply capacity.
Meanwhile, the Padma Bridge, MRT line-6 and Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant are seen on track.
Padma Bridge construction, the oldest one among the designated fast-track projects, is scheduled to open to traffic in June this year.
The project was approved way back in August 2007, involving an initially estimated cost of Tk 101.62 billion. The ECNEC had given the all-clear, after a great deal of fusses and fiddles following disputes from would-be foreign financiers.
The project had faced a massive delay in its initial stages for the funding row with international development partners, including the World Bank.
Construction work on the 6.15-kilometre-long bridge started in November 2014 with an escalated cost of Tk 205.02 billion-double the original amount of Tk 101.62 billion. The new deadline fixed was December 2015.
For a second time the project was revised in 2015, jacking up the cost to Tk 287.94 billion and extending the execution deadline until June 2018. It had been revised for the 3rd time, enhancing the cost to Tk 301.93 billion and re-fixing the deadline to December 2019.
But the cut-off time was extended over again to June 2023 as the BBA missed it again.
The Rooppur nuclear power plant, supported by Russia, had recorded a progress at 40.12 per cent till December last year. The project is set to be commissioned by December 2025.
And the MRT line-6 is also progressing well as the entire Uttara-Agargaon-Farmgate-Motijheel 20.1-km metro-rail line may be implemented by the stipulated deadline in June 2024, project-insiders say.
