Some 20 civil servants are set to go for overseas training to gather knowledge on road reconstruction to implement a Roads and Highways Department (RHD) project, insiders said Thursday.
The state-owned road developer has kept aside Tk1.02 million for each of the civil servants for the overseas trip to get equipped with knowledge to take care of 66.82-kilometre-road-widening project, they say.
Also, the RHD would purchase 20 vehicles for monitoring the road-reconstruction works at a cost of Tk 130 million.
Officials involved with the project told the FE that the department would purchase six luxury cars, four pickups, one microbus and nine motorbikes for the Kushtia-Jhenidah highway widening project.
It has proposed to spend Tk88.3 million for procuring 20 automobiles, Tk 2.81 million for their registration cost, Tk 24.24 million for supplying fuel oils, and Tk10.08 million for CNG/gas use.
It has proposed Tk 0.255 million as the registration fee for each of the vehicles to be purchased.
In addition to using the cars, the road developer would need spending Tk 2.27 million as travel expenses in the road-upgrade project.
The department has taken up a Tk 55.14-billion project to reconstruct the road and sought approval with those elements from the Planning Commission.
With the financial support of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the RHD will widen the 66.82km road, officials said Tuesday.
The road in the country's southwestern belt will be upgraded to a 4-lane one with a provision of additional 2 lanes both sides for slow-moving vehicles, says a senior RHD official.
Under the Western Economic Corridor Development Initiative (WeCARE), the road from Lalonshah Bridge (Paksey, Kushtia) to Jhenidah is being rebuilt in order to establish sub-regional connectivity and also connect Benapole and Bhomra land ports, he adds.
According to RHD sources, the entire Bhomra land port-Navaron- Jashore- Jhenidah-Kushtia-Bonpara-Hatikamrul road corridor will be developed into a six-lane highway with the provision for two slow-moving-vehicle lanes.
Asked about the project cost, Riaz Ahmad Jaber, Additional Chief Engineer of RHD, told the FE that if they failed to provide some incentives (like better cars, foreign training and other logistics) to the officers, they would not give a quality output.
"So the cars, foreign trainings and some better logistics would encourage the engineers for better road- construction works," he says.
"Actually the foreign trainings, vehicle procurement constitute a very minor part of the project, which is less than 1.0 per cent of the total Tk 55.14-billion-expenditure proposal," adds Mr Jaber.
On the other hand, he says, the road will boost up Bangladesh's transportation system as well as regional connectivity.
Another RHD official says they had already sent a project proposal to the PC for getting approval. "Soon after getting the endorsement, we will start work for widening the road."
According to the project proposal, the Beijing-based development partner, AIIB, will provide Tk34.93 billion while the remaining amount of the total Tk 55.14 billion will be spent from internal resources.
As planned, the road-widening project includes construction of 10 flyovers and overpasses for passersby, railway, and six bridges on the highway.
The corridor will facilitate the linking of the Asian Highway, SAARC Highway corridor, SASEC road corridor and the Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal cargo route with a connection to Mongla seaport, Benapole land port and Bhomra land port, the RHD official said.
The remaining road from Jhenidah to Benapole and Lalonshah Bridge-Hatikamrul will also be built with the help of the World Bank and the AIIB.
Actually, the AIIB is providing financial support for widening 153.5km highway under the WeCARE initiative along Jhenidah-Lalonshah Bridge-Bonpara-Hatikamrul.
"On this alignment, we have sought approval for the Jhenidah-Lalonshah Bridge section. The remaining Lalonshah Bridge-Bonpara-Hatikamrul section will also be built soon," the RHD official says.
The World Bank has already assured of providing financial support for Bhomra-Satkhira-Navaron-Jessore-Jhenaidah route, he adds.
The entire road connectivity will ensure smooth cross-border and sub-regional transport facilities with South Asian nations, he hopes about a mega-plan for communications and connectivity.
When asked, a PC official said they were scrutinizing the Lalonshah Bridge-Jhenaidah-road-widening project before placing it before the ECNEC for approval.
Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman told the FE that in recent years there was a trend among public servants to make money and wealth.
"The inflated project-cost estimation, purchase of luxury cars, training overseas, bloated spending estimation for the consultants is part of the tendency," he says.
"Over the last 50 years, the public servants are supposed to have acquired a vast knowledge on road reconstruction. But they still need to go for foreign training, which is simply misuse of the pub-taxed money. These types of act prove the dishonesty of some civil servants," Dr Iftekharuzzaman adds.
"I hope the government would identify those dishonest servants and punish for the betterment of the country," says the executive of the Bangladesh chapter of the Berlin-based international watchdog.
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