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The cost of a project to improve Munshiganj's road connectivity with Dhaka and its surrounding areas has been increased by 49.04 per cent in the first revision proposal.
The project involves widening 10.813km of roads and constructing 9.06km of elevated roads from Panchabati in Narayanganj to the Muktarpur Bridge on the Dhaleshwari River.
Initiated in January 2021, the project's estimated cost was Tk 22.43 billion. Now the Bridges Division has sent the first revision proposal, increasing the cost by Tk 11 billion to Tk 33.43 billion and extending the deadline by one more year.
The cost has been raised due to the increase in land acquisition costs, pressure on the exchange rate, and additional costs for shifting utilities and some other work, said planning commission officials.
They said the commission's Physical Infrastructure Division recently held a project evaluation committee (PEC) meeting to assess the revision proposal and asked for justification of the additional costs. It also recommended dropping some new components to keep the project cost rational.
MA Akmall Hossain Azad, member (senior secretary) at the Physical Infrastructure Division, presided over the PEC meeting attended by representatives of the Bridges Division, Bangladesh Bridge Authority, planning commission, and other government agencies.
Rashidul Hassan, former executive director (routine responsibility) of Bangladesh Bridge Authority, told the meeting the Bridges Division had sought additional allocations of Tk 3.72 billion for constructing physical infrastructures, Tk 2.1 billion for land acquisition, Tk 1.10 billion for contingencies to respond to future additional work or inflation, and Tk 247.8 million for construction supervision services.
The depreciation of Taka against the USD pushed the project cost up by Tk 1.39 billion, revealed the revised proposal assessed at the meeting.
The proposal said Tk 31.21 billion would come from the government exchequer, which was Tk 20.21 billion in the original project, reflecting an increase of 54.42 per cent.
On the other hand, the contribution of Bangladesh Bridge Authority would remain the same at Tk 2.22 billion, which would drop its share to 6.64 per cent from the original 9.90 per cent following its annual budget defecit of around $3 billion, said officials.
Officials said the project's physical progress was 50 per cent till November 2024 and spending was Tk 16.21 billion, around 70 per cent of the existing cost.
Azad told the meeting half the work had been completed in the last four years and asked for an explaination for how the remaining work would be finished in the next one year and a half, revealed the meeting minutes.
The project director explained the project's physical progress is good as per the working plan and it is possible to complete over 70 per cent of work by next June, subject to the handover of 7.28 acres of land in Narayanganj, which is related to the approval of the revised proposal.
Kabir Ahamed, chief (additional secretary) at the Physical Infrastructure Division, asked about the increased costs of land acquisition and rehabilitation components.
Bridges Division officials said despite 42.48 acres of land acqusition in the original project, 2.02 acres less is being acquired. Besides, land costs are supposed to increase due to the rise in mouza rates by two times in the majority areas and more than that in some areas.
Ahamed also asked the project director to provide the details of the increased costs of construction.
The Bangladesh Bridge Authority executive director said construction expenditures increased by Tk 551.6 million for piling and pile cap redesign and relocation, Tk 149.1 million for utility shifting, and the rest for price adjustments and changes in the exchange rate.
A senior Bridges Division official said the value of each USD was Tk 84.80 at the time of signing the agreement with the consultants, which crossed Tk 122 at present.
The changes in the exchange rate pushed up consultants' costs by Tk 1.39 billion, including Tk 1.33 billion for construction and Tk 60.9 million for consultancy.
The PEC meeting decided to re-examine and rationally re-determine the costs of consultants and reccommended dropping the proposed Tk 150 million allocation for constructing a regional office of the Bangladesh Bridge Authority in Narayanganj.
The project document reveals a huge number of vehicles have been running on the Munshiganj-Narayanganj road through the Muktarpur Bridge since the latter's opening in 2008.
The road from Panchabati to Muktarpur is extremely narrow, causing severe traffic congestion. It also sees accidents frequently due to the movement of heavy vehicles whose operations are related to the huge number of cement factories and the increasingly good harvest of potato.
The annual average daily traffic on the road is 23,209 at present, which will increase to 30,560 in 2028, 39,000 in 2033, and over 63,500 in 2040.