Roads and Highways Department (RHD) on Thursday signed its first contract since the outbreak of Covid-19 in Bangladesh worth Tk 6.50 billion, under a JICA-funded project to upgrade and replace 21 bridges.
The RHD hosted the signing ceremony at its project office in Banani when Mr Sobur and Mritunjoy Ghosal signed the deal on behalf of the RHD and contractors.
Additional secretary Chandan Kumar Dey and RHD chief engineer M Shahriar Hossain also joined.
Road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader, Japanese ambassador Naoki Ito and JICA Dhaka Office chief representative Hayakawa Yuho witnessed the deal signing through videoconferencing.
According to officials, these bridges located in Rangpur, Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal and Gopalganj were added to the Western Bangladesh Bridge Improvement (WBBI) Project.
Under the WBBI project, works on 25 bridges has already been completed and 35 more ongoing.
They said these bridges were selected with JICA’s consent after a 600-metre bridge building in AK Khan Economic Zone in Narsingdi was dropped from the Tk 29.11 billion WBBI project.
The construction of the bridge was dropped for not meeting the criteria of the funding agency.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is funding Tk 19.05 billion of the project.
According to the contract, Concord-Progati Consortium Ltd will carry out works on eight bridges in Rangpur-Rajshahi zones spending Tk 2.29 billion.
CR24B-Spectra joint venture has got the work on 13 bridges at Tk 4.27 billion under Khulna-Barisal-Gopalganj zone.
Both are responsible for doing the job in a year.
Addressing the function, Mr Quader recalled the contribution of Japan in Bangladesh’s infrastructure development and said Japan is a proven friend.
WBBI project was taken in 2015 after a feasibility study on 106 bridges with the support of the JICA.
But the study selected 60 bridges under the RHD five zones to be upgraded and constructed under the project to build strong road network in the region.
Later, the 600-metre bridge in AK Khan Economic Zone was added. A loan agreement with the JICA was signed on December 13, 2015.
The RHD revised the project on March 11, 2019, after dropping the bridge for not getting any investment until then.
The project tenure ends in 2022.
