Bir Nibash – a housing project for underprivileged freedom fighters and their families – was set to reach completion by October this year, but the construction of only 5,879 out of 30,000 homes is finished so far, a 20 per cent progress.
A recent Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) report shows that work orders were issued for the construction of 17,660 homes – 59 per cent of the target – till April this year.
Authorities have not yet been able to call tender for the construction of 12,340 homes – 41 per cent of the project. Actual work progress till April is 21.28 per cent, and rest of the work will not be completed between May and October this year, insiders told The Business Post.
The Ministry of Liberation War Affairs had initially planned to implement the project titled, “Construction of Housing for Underprivileged Freedom Fighters” across the country within 34 months – between January 2021 and October 2023 at a cost of Tk 4,123 crore.
This project marks the occasion of Mujib Borsho and 50 years of Bangladesh’s independence. The key objective of this initiative is to build 30,000 houses for underprivileged freedom fighters, biranganas, widows and children of martyred and late freedom fighters.
Each 635 square feet house has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a dining room, and a kitchen. The cost of building each house is Tk 14,10,382.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on February 15, 2023 handed over the keys of 5,000 houses to valiant freedom fighters at a gala ceremony in Dhaka.
The IMED report mentions that 455 tender packages of work purchase were approved under Open Tendering Method (OTM) in the Development Project Proposal (DPP), and 45 tender packages has been approved under Limited Tendering Method (LTM).
Though 11,080 homes are currently under construction, the process has become stagnant. Besides, the construction of 701 homes has been postponed due to the unavailability of land.
The report further mentions that implementation progress for the project was 11.91 percent in FY22, and 9.27 per cent in April of FY23. So, overall progress stands at 21.20 per cent till April this year, while fiscal progress was 37 per cent till April.
Multitude of issues
The IMED report mentions that the project’s progress did not progress as per the DPP. There is an evaluation committee of the project, which was supposed to conduct a mid-term survey, but it has not done any such survey yet.
Moreover, the project steering committee meetings were comparatively less than what is needed. There has been no project implementation committee meeting so far.
Low quality bricks have been used in the construction of the homes. IMED authority at field level visit had found some walls with cracks, defective doors, use of less than needed amount of cement, and evidence that the workers lacked skill.
Such observations raised questions regarding the quality of the homes, which also lack drinkable water due to a lack of depth of tubewells.
Reasons behind slow progress
The Business Post tried to reach out to Bir Nibash Project Director M Idris Siddique for comments on the matter, but he did not respond till the filing of this report.
According to the IMED report, lack of manpower, activation of contractors, lack of timely administrative decisions, high construction material prices, Covid-19, timely availability of funds, and not getting the list of eligible freedom fighters are key reasons behind this project’s slow progress.
High USD against Taka, natural disasters, and current economic shocks created risks or challenges against timely completion of the project. The report mentions that an additional year is required to complete the project if the tenders for 12,340 homes are called soon.
The IMED report further recommended building homes that are resistant to earthquakes. The number of the Bir Nibash homes can be extended to maintain quality. It suggested increasing the project tenure to implement this project successfully.
Manpower can also be increased to maintain the quality of this project.
