The Ministry of Water Resources is going to build a guide dam on Buriganga River under the “Buriganga River Restoration Project”. The 370-meter-long guide dam and will be built jointly by the construction companies LA and TTCL within a short time at a cost of Taka 50.62 crore.
A proposal in this regard will be placed at the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase (CCPP) Wednesday.
According to sources of the Ministry of Water Resources, the new Dhaleshwari River originates from the Jamuna River and crosses the Pungli-Bangshai-Turag meeting point from 162.50 km and joins Buriganga. The sedimentary flow from the Jamuna into Dhaleshwari in this long distance fills the bottom of the river with silt halting water flow is during the dry season.
In order to overcome this situation, the Bangladesh Water Development Board allocated Taka 944.09 crore under a project titled “Buriganga River Restoration (New Dhaleshwari-Pungli-Bangshai-Turag Buriganga) River System” which was approved at the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) meeting on 6 April in 2010.
The 2nd revised Development Project Proposal (DPP) of the project was approved on July 24, 2019 with the provision of construction of a 1.53 km guide dam with protective system on both sides of the river at the source of Jamuna and New Dhaleshwari.
According to the 2nd amendment, the duration of the project is from April 2010 to June 2021 and the estimated cost is Taka 112.05 crore. The cumulative implementation progress of the project is 51.50 percent.
The project was implemented in 4 lots through an open tender system. Although the work-order of three lots was approved at the Cabinet However, the evaluation committee in 2016 recommended re-tendering of the lot as the bid rate for the 3rd lot of the project was 7.43 percent higher than the estimated rate.
Besides, the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Department of the Ministry of Planning inspected the activities of the remaining three lots and recommended that the construction of guide dams for the project be completed soon.
Moreover, according to sources, a master plan has been approved to increase the navigability of the rivers around Dhaka city, remove illegal structures built on the river and decontaminate.
Once the project is completed, it will be possible to bring 141 cusecs of water from the Jamuna to Buriganga in the dry season through New Dhaleshwari, Banshi, Punli and Turag rivers.
As a result, excess water flow will play a role in reducing water pollution in the Buriganga River, which will play a role in the implementation of the master plan.
According to the sources, tenders were called 5 times for the 3rd lot of the project. Of respondents, LA-TTCL offered Taka 50.62 to build the dam, which was 10 percent less than the estimated rate.
It has been recommended to the Cabinet Committee on Public Procurement to approve LA-TTCA as the lowest bidder for the implementation of the project.
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