Within 5 years of its completion, the ballast thickness along parts of the Laksam-Chinki Astana rail line on the Dhaka-Chattogram corridor has degraded to about half of the design standard.
An inspection of five spots on the line found ballast thickness ranging from 125 mm to 249 mm, which is 69.20 mm less than the project specification of 250 mm. This discrepancy was revealed in a report by the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) of the Planning Ministry.
The report suggests that some ballast degradation could be attributed to a lack of maintenance and recommends investigating the issue, which shows a 27.68% reduction in ballast thickness.
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved a project in 2007 at an estimated cost of Tk501.50 crore to build 80.5km of railway including a 19.5km loop line parallel to the existing 61km railway from Chinki Astana to Laksam as part of facilitating rail connectivity in the Dhaka to Chittagong corridor.
The project scheduled originally to be completed by June 2013, was declared completed in October 2018 at a cost of Tk1,809.48 crore following several revisions of the project due to various complications.
Bangladesh Railway has spent 3.61 folds compared with the initial estimate to complete the five-year work in eleven years.
The IMED has recently prepared a detailed report through a private consultation firm to evaluate the impact of the completed project. This third-party report has revealed various irregularities in the project besides a shortage of ballast on the rail tracks.
Falls short of standards
The report claims that sleepers were damaged at various places on the line within five years of construction.
Wooden sleepers were seen rotting due to water logging.
Apart from that, the bridges constructed under the project have been claimed to be rusted and immediate renovation has been recommended.
The report revealed that various infrastructures of the railway stations constructed under the project were damaged.
Apart from the lack of safe drinking water in the station premises, lack of separate toilets and restrooms for women.
The passengers are suffering as the length of the station shade is less than the platform, said IMED report.
The IMED sent a detailed report with some recommendations to the concerned offices including the Ministry of Railways, Bangladesh Railways.
IMED Secretary Abul Kashem Md Mohiuddin said complying with the recommendations would help the Bangladesh Railway to increase the capacity of implementing development projects with enhanced efficiency.
The implementation of the project has improved rail connectivity by increasing the number and speed of trains plying in the corridor, but local people are being deprived of its benefits as the four newly constructed stations are closed due to manpower crisis, IMED said.
According to the report, new buildings have been constructed and renovated at 11 stations from Laksam to Chinki Astana, but Naoti, Sharshadi, Kalidah and Muhariganj stations remain closed.
As a result, the grills, and doors among other things of these station buildings are getting damaged.
The report recommended that all these stations should be commissioned with speedy deployment of manpower to increase railway revenue, create opportunities for local people to use the rail services and ensure utilisation of existing resources.
It also said that there is movement of outsiders in an abandoned building at Sharshadi station with doors and windows open. As a result, the environment of the station is getting damaged, according to the report.
IMED said that the project is aimed at increasing the average number of trains running on the section from 38 to 64, but currently, 52 trains are running on this line daily.
Apart from this, the speed of passenger trains was supposed to be increased from 38kmph to 90kmph and freight train speed to 60kmph on this corridor.
IMED said that after the implementation of the project, trains are running at a maximum speed of 85kmph on this line.
5 years’ of work dragged to more than a decade
Although the National Economic Council Executive Committee (ECNEC) approved it in late 2007, it took more than two years for the tender notice for the largest package of the project.
Almost four years have passed since the start of the main work on the five-year project after approval following no objection from the lender Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) and approvals from various government agencies.
The project was extended by two years up to June 2015 in early 2011 to complete the implementation of the project.
It was later extended by one more year in the second amendment, one more year in the special amendment and more than one year in the third amendment till October 2018.
Tk1,308 crore delay penalties
The Bangladesh Railways spent an additional amount of Tk1,308 crore due to failure in the implementation of the unplanned project within the stipulated time.
The review showed that the initial cost of implementing the project was estimated at Tk501.51 crore with Tk225.82 crore from the government's funds and Tk275.69 crore from the Jica.
With various types of additional new infrastructure and penalties for non-payment of contractor's bills on time, the cost of the project stands at Tk1,809.48 crore.
As such, the implementation of the project has cost about 3.61 times the initial estimate.
Tk1,281.84 crores from the government's own funds and 527.64 crores from Jica funds were finally spent.
According to this, the allocation of government funds has increased by 5.68 times, but JICA's assistance has increased by only 91%.
A lack of planning
The IMED felt that there was no conformity of the project with the reality in the preparation of the project document (DPP), estimation of cost, determination of implementation period, approval, release and disbursement of funds.
Following a demand of about Tk21 crore in the fiscal year 2008-09, the project was allotted Tk19.50 crore. But the government released Tk3 crore in favour of the project while the implementation stood at below Tk7 lakh, said the IMED.
Although there was a demand of Tk178 crore in FY2010, Tk11.25 crore has been released by the government and implementation realised by only Tk72.55 lakh.
The report also stated that the scope, number and implementation period of the project were not properly determined during the formulation of the original DPP of the project.
Total of four revisions including a special one were made with new scope after the approval of the DPP at the implementation stage.
In addition to adding 20 items to the scheme in the third and final revision of the project, 24 items have been dropped, the report claims.
