Physical work to expand the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway is going to start finally, around seven years after a feasibility study was done to take up a project to improve connectivity between the capital and the southeast region, and beyond.

Two Chinese-Bangladesh firms have been selected for one of the six packages under the Tk 16,918.59-crore project for turning the 210km highway into a four-lane one with service lanes on both sides, say officials.

Contracts between the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) -- the implementing agency of the project -- and the contractors are likely to be signed next month, and work will start in December, they told The Daily Star.

However, delay in land acquisition and complexities regarding the tender of one of the packages may hinder the project's implementation.

In February last year, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved the project, setting December 2026 as the deadline for completion.

The authorities decided to implement the project under six packages and hire 13 contractors for quick implementation.

The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase (CCGP) on September 14 approved proposals for appointing two contractors for the first package.

A joint-venture firm of Longjian Road and Bridge Company Ltd of China and Max Infrastructure Ltd of Bangladesh will work on an 18km portion from the Kanchpur intersection to Chanpara Bus Stand.

The firm will get Tk 925.36 crore to complete the physical work within four years, officials said.

Another joint venture of Zhengzhou City Highway Engineering Corporation Ltd of China and Max Infrastructure Ltd will carry out work on a 17km portion from Chanpara to Narsingdi BSCIC area at a cost of Tk 1,394.66 crore.

The company has to finish physical work in four years.

Contacted, Project Director AK Mohammad Fazlul Karim said, "We hope to sign agreements with both the contractors by next month."

Once the deals are struck, the contractors will mobilise their resources, and work is expected to begin in December, he told this newspaper on Monday.

"There were some complexities over the project. However, the good news is work is finally going to start," he added.

The Dhaka-Sylhet Highway connects the Sylhet division with the capital and Chattogram, but the existing two-lane highway from Narayanganj's Kanchpur to Sylhet is not enough to deal with the growing number of vehicles, often causing traffic congestion and road crashes.

Besides, it's part of the Asian Highway-1, which connects Meghalaya with West Bengal of India via Tamabil-Sylhet-Dhaka-Narail-Jashore. The government has taken up a separate project to turn the Sylhet-Tamabil Highway into a four-lane highway.

DELAY OVER LAND ACQUISITION

Expansion of the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway has long been in discussion, and the road authorities even carried out a feasibility study from 2012 to 2015.

But complexities over funding halted the plan. The project was supposed to be implemented with Chinese funding under a G2G initiative, but it ran into a snag as the authorities failed to reach a deal with the selected Chinese company.

Later, the government sought to implement it with own funds. But it then changed its mind and finally decided to take funds from the Asian Development Bank.

Amid complexities over funding, the government in October 2018 took up a Tk 3,885-crore project to acquire land and move the utility services lines as part of preparations for physical work.

The government made the move as land acquisition and shifting of utility services lines take considerable time and involve a complex process.

The Tk 3,885-crore project was supposed to be completed by June last year, but the implementing agency missed the deadline.

The authorities revised the project in February this year, pushing up the cost to Tk 7,982 crore (105 percent more). The deadline was also extended till June 2023. But the project authorities are yet to hand over any land to the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway Project authorities, sources said.

An RHD official, who is in the know about both the projects, said the majority of the land acquisition proposals remains pending with local district administration for over a year.

"We hope we'll get at least 50 percent of the land needed for package-1 before the physical work begins," the official said.

The official further said there is uncertainty about the start of physical work of several other packages due to complexities regarding land acquisition.

Project Director Fazlul Karim, however, said 80 percent of the required land for package-1 will be available before physical work starts.

He also said they will get 270 days to hand over all the required land to the contractors after physical work starts.

Karim, however, admitted there are some problems over land acquisition in some areas, including Habiganj. "However, we are trying our best to resolve those."

Meanwhile, sources at the Road Transport and Highways Division said a foreign company, with a poor track record in implementing a project in Bangladesh, topped the list of bidders in a tender for a contract in one of the packages.

The process remains halted for over a month as the project authorities have sought the division's directive in this regard but are yet to get any, sources said.

This may create further complexities leading to delay in the project's implementation, they added.