Padma Rail Link Project braces for delay

FT ONLINE

The Padma Rail Link Project (PRLP) is fated to be delayed in the absence of confirmation of design and loss of time in land acquisition, sources said.

Both the cost and tenure of the project are also likely to increase significantly as the project's Chinese contractor has already placed a claim for Tk 2.47 billion for the delay mainly attributed to not getting land in time, they added.

Besides, sources said, the demand for 300 more acres of land has been placed by the contractor for changes in the design after revision due to the failure of trial piles.

China Railway Group Limited (CRGL) has sought time extension by 400 days for the Mawa-Bangha section of the Padma rail work and 317 days for other sections due to delay on the part of Bangladesh Railway (BR).

According to the monthly progress report on the rail link project, 787 days have already elapsed since the commencement of the project.

Against 28.70 percent cumulative target of progress, 18 percent was achieved till September, the report added.

But progress in the first quarter (July- September) of the current fiscal year was recorded at only 1.0 percent against the yearly target of 15 percent.

Sources said 17 percent of Tk 39.95 billion allotted for the project in the current fiscal year 2019-20 was spent.

The report also showed that 30 percent of the project cost totaling Tk 392.46 billion had so far been spent.

The project office sat with the BR and the Ministry of Railways on Thursday to resolve the problems being faced by the project.

Sources said the meeting ended without any significant outcomes.

The project officials said that the project's design confirmation was not yet completed as only four trial piles of 15 constructed trial piles were confirmed.

The project's detailed design suggested constructing 4,500 piles for railway tracks on both sides of the Padma Bridge with the piling depth ranging between 30 and 38 metres.

Project officials claimed that the progress was made in the first phase of work by almost completing site clearance and utility shifting along the route from Dhaka to Mawa.

But the detailed design of the 172-kilometre route was not yet confirmed, they added.

The detailed design for the first phase of the route from Dhaka to Mawa has been revised after finding soil levels different from that mentioned in the design on the Padma Bridge site which was done under the Padma Multipurpose  Bridge project.

But the detailed design for the second phase work from Mawa to Bhanga is yet to be completed.

A panel of experts from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) has been engaged in resolving the pile and soil-related problems.

Project Director Golam Fokhruddin Ahmed Chowdhury said they were trying to complete land acquisition for the second phase work so that the detailed design for that part can be carried out simultaneously to make up for the time lost.

"It is a continuous process. The contractor is submitting the design part by part," he said at his office recently.

The BR and CRGL signed a Tk 247.49 billion commercial contract on August 08, 2016 to develop the 172km broad gauge single railway track on both sides of the Padma Bridge, the country's longest bridge under a government-to-government arrangement.

But the commercial contract with the CRGL, however, came into effect on July 03, 2018, due to a delay in signing the loan agreement with the Chinese Exim Bank. The loan contract was signed on April 27, 2018.

The project office blamed the CRGL for the delay as it took too much time to start the pile load tests.

The Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project earlier faced a similar soil-related problem at the beginning of the construction of the road-cum-rail bridge.

The government has attached priority to constructing the Padma Bridge, with a road bridge on the top and the railway bridge in the lower part of the 6.15-kilometre structure.

The Padma Bridge is being implemented by Bangladesh Bridge Authority and the establishment of the rail link on both sides of the bridge by Bangladesh Railway.

Both projects have missed the deadline for completing the work by 2018.