BRT construction work resumes
Construction work of Bus Rapid Transit Line-3 Project resumed yesterday, after a girder segment fell on a car on August 15 killing five people that prompted the authorities to suspend work.
The work resumed after the consultants approved of the safety measures adopted for the site in Uttara.
Physical work at the other sites will resume once the contractor provides the safety plans and gets those approved by the consultants, they added.
However, experts said questions remained as to whether the project authorities would be able to complete the construction as per the plan in March next year.
The development came a week after a government committee held the Chinese contractor, China Gezhouba Group Co Ltd, responsible for negligence that caused the death of five people, including two children.
The victims were crushed when a crane toppled over, making a box girder segment fall on their car on the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway in the capital's Uttara.
Project authorities suspended the construction work a day after the incident following a meeting with the officials of Asian Development Bank, a major financier of the long-delayed project.
Another Chinese contractor was also directed to ensure foolproof safety at the sites before resuming work.
"They [Gezhouba] gave a safety plan and took the necessary safety measures. Our consultants approved those upon visiting the site several times," said Shafiqul Islam, managing director of Dhaka BRT Company Ltd, one of the implementing agencies of project.
BRT Line-3 is a Tk 4,268.38-crore project to build a 20.50km dedicated road for bus services from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to Gazipur. It was originally supposed to be completed at a cost of Tk 2,037.85 crore by December 2016.
The deadline was later extended to June this year, but the project made 78 percent progress by then. Another deadline was then set in December this year.
But project officials again sought a one-year extension. The proposal is now pending with the Planning Commission.
As per the latest new plan of the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) and Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) the physical work will be done by March next year.
The RHD is working on a 16km part of the road while the BBA is constructing a 4.5km elevated part of the road.
According to a project document, if the RHD and BBA are to complete the work by next March, the monthly average construction progress should be 2.23 percent and 3.60 percent respectively.
But the monthly average progress of RHD and BBA was only 1.56 and 1.40 percent since August last year, according to records.
Asked whether the work will be done on time, Shafiqul Islam said he hoped that the pace could be picked up because of the newly established discipline. "We are confident about meeting the target."
ACTIONS TAKEN
Revealing a probe report on the August 15 tragedy, ABM Amin Ullah Nuri, secretary of the road transport and highways division, on September 4 said RHD would take action in line with the findings.
Contacted, RHD Chief Engineer AKM Manir Hossain Pathan yesterday said the contractor was already facing action. "We made an insurance claim [for the deaths] and issued a notice of correction to the contractor."
Asked what had been done after the probe committee submitted the report, he did not give a direct reply.
"The steps taken so far go with the probe committee findings."