Published in New Age on Wednesday, 14 May 2014.
Padma Bridge Construction
China Major estimates cost at $1.5b
Shakahwat Hossain
China Major Bridge Engineering Company Limited has estimated the construction cost of the main Padma Bridge at US$ 1.51 billion, at least US$ 200 million higher than the government estimate, that would make the overall project costly.
Officials and experts apprehended that cost of the overall project including river training, approach roads and construction yard could reach US$ 3.5 billion due to alternative plan of funding the project with own finance in 2012 after the donors abandoned it.
Users of the bridge, when it is constructed, might find the toll rate higher because of escalation of the project cost to almost double in five years’ time, they said.
China Major is the only company now vying for the much-talked-about bridge project after two other initially qualified international firms– Daelim L&T JV from India and Samsung C&T Corp from South Korea– finally decided not to take part in the final bidding.
‘The estimate of the China Major is now under scrutiny,’ said Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, chief of the government appointed technical committee.
He, however, did not disclose the estimate quoted by the China Major Company.
He said Maunsell AECOM, the consultant appointed by the government for the project, was also examining the proposal along with the committee.
It will take less than a month to complete the scrutiny, he told New Age on Sunday.
Officials of the bridge division said the government is desperate to award the contract in June.
The government was forced to take alternative funding plan after donor agencies like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank suspended their credit programme citing corruption in the bridge tender process.
Centre for Policy Dialogue executive director Mustafizur Rahman pointed out that the government was taking the risk to pay high interest rate for funding the project.
He calculated that the interest rate would be around 12 per cent compared to only one per cent if the government could avail credit of the donors. He observed that the government would have little option but impose higher levies on the users for realising the bridge costs.
The existing toll rate of Bangabandhu Multipurpose Bridge, formerly known as the Jamuna Bridge, for a truck is Tk 850 or around $10. The rate would increase from the new fiscal.
Many calculated that toll rate for a truck on the proposed Padma Bridge might be fixed between $15 and $20 at the beginning.
Former caretaker government adviser Mirza Azizul Islam said the alternative funding plan would put pressure on the overall economy as the plan is expensive. He said users of the bridge would have to pay the penalty of higher cost.
When built, the 6.1 kilometre bridge will drastically cut down the time for travel and movement of goods between the country’s backward south-western region and the capital and the eastern districts.
Designed as a two-level steel truss bridge, it is expected to have a four-lane highway on the upper level and a single track railway on a lower level. The 18.10 metre (59.4 feet) wide bridge will connect Mawa in Musnhiganj with Janjira in Shariatpur.