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A road widening project of Khulna Shipyard has progressed only 10 per cent in nine years due mainly to land acquisition complexities, according to a report of the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) under the Planning Commission.
The project was supposed to be completed by June 2015 while it was approved in early 2013.
“The project’s progress was only 10 per cent till May 2022 while its financial progress was 37.53 per cent. The deadline was extended four times, and the latest one was till June 2022. The project clocked a 45 per cent physical progress,” the IMED report said.
The project’s original cost was Tk 98.9 crore. Through special revisions, the expenditure was later increased by Tk 27.68 crore. A body under the Ministry of Housing and Public Works is implementing the project.
The ministry has now submitted a revised proposal to the Planning Commission, seeking an additional Tk 132.63 crore to complete the project. As a result, the total cost now stands at Tk 259.21 crore.
It has also sought an extension of the project’s deadline till December 2023. The IMED has given the ministry six conditions, asking it not to seek further extension of the deadline beyond December 2023.
Its Secretary Abu Hena Morshed Zaman said the conditions were given to accelerate the project.
“If the conditions are not complied with, we will notify the authorities concerned.”
If nothing happens even after that, the IMED will then inform the Cabinet Division, he said, adding, “We have to constantly monitor the project.”
Explaining why repeated extensions of the deadline were sought, the Ministry of Housing and Public Works said the deputy commissioner’s office could hand over 5.633 acres of land out of 7.303 acres, identifying it as the major cause.
The project had six land acquisition packages and five of them have been completed. The sixth could not be completed due to local people’s protests, the IMED report said.
