Lighting project goes dark

A project for lighting various roads in the Chattogram City Corporation areas has not seen a single percent of progress in three and a half years.

Due to the multiple reasons, including delays in tender procedures, negligence of CCC officials and allegations of tender manipulation, the project has come to a halt.

None of the seven packages have yet seen initiation.

The project, with a one-year tenure and cost of Tk 261 crore from Indian funds, has already been revised for the second time after three-and-a-half-year.

CCC -- the implementing agency of the project -- has not been able to appoint a contractor yet.

CCC has asked for a third extension (one year) after the expiry of the second edition, according to the documents of Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) of the planning ministry.

Wishing anonymity, some CCC officials said the project work could not be started on time due to some other reasons. It took more than eight months to complete the capacity survey (pre-quality) process conducted by Exim Bank of India.

"It is a failure of the concerned officials of the city corporation," according to a planning ministry official. 

The project, titled "Modernisation of City Street Light System at Different Areas under CCC", was approved at the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council on July 9, 2019.

After the implementation of the project, the electricity bill of CCC will be reduced by half and a smart management system would be introduced instead of the manual process, said Abdul Bari, executive engineer (electrical) of CCC.

He said around 500 switches for lamp-control will be replaced by only four central server stations. The LED lamps will be controlled by timers and magnetic control systems.

According to CCC sources, there are lights on a total of 1,043 kilometres of roads in the city. Among them, sodium lamps cover up a total of 890 kilometres of roads and LED lamps cover up 153 kilometres.

Meanwhile, if the project is implemented, 467 kilometres covered with sodium lamps will be replaced by LED lamps.

According to CCC officials, there are about 51,573 sodium lamps in the city streets. These lamps are switched on and off from 1,534 switching points in different mosques, temples and social organisation offices.

A total of 1,534 imams, muazzins and priests are engaged in this work at each point. CCC has been paying an honorarium of Tk 2,500 to each of them annually, and Tk 38.35 lakh in total.

Asked about the zero percent progress in over three years, project director Jhulan Kumar Das said they could not continue the project due to the pandemic.

However, wishing anonymity, some CCC officials said the project work could not be started on time due to some other reasons. It took more than eight months to complete the capacity survey (pre-quality) process conducted by Exim Bank of India.

Besides, contractors were not appointed as per law, they alleged.

Meanwhile, a bidder contractor also submitted a written complaint to the IMED of the planning ministry, saying the project director is involved with tender manipulation.

When asked, Jhulan Kumar declined to comment on the issue.

"The Indian government will verify the papers and approve of the matter soon," he said.

"The tender process has already started. The companies approved by the Indian government would take part in the tender immediately after we get the approval papers by the Indian government," he said. 

Contacted, CCC Mayor Rezaul Karim Chowdhury said the project had been initiated before he took the office. "There were some complications initially, but I have taken stern steps to gear up works," he added.

The project was scheduled to be completed by June 2021. Besides, the revised implementation period of the project was extended by one year till June 2022.

However, no decision has been taken on whether the cost of the project will increase with the deadline extension.