The Bridges Division of the Communications Ministry has moved a proposal seeking an increase in the contract value of the Padma Bridge’s detailed design consultant.The New Zealand-based Maunsell Ltd AECOM was appointed by the Bridge Division in 2009 to draw a detailed design of the proposed Padma Bridge within 22 months.
According to official sources, the Bridge Division has already sent its proposal to the Cabinet Purchase Committee for approval. “If the Cabinet body approves the proposal, it’ll be the second-time increase in the contract value of the design consultant and the cost will go up by 55.96 percent,” said a top official at the Communications Ministry.
Originally, the Maunsell was appointed at a contract value of US$ 16.579 million. Later, the cost was increased by US$ 7.146 million after doing some 23 additional technical studies and survey as suggested by the donor agencies.
As a result, the total cost of the detail consultant’s went up to US$ 23.896 which was approved by the Cabinet Purchase Committee under an ‘Addendum-1’ proposal.
Now, the Bridge Division moves for the second-time increase in the cost under the Addendum-2 proposal. With this, the cost will further increase by US$ 1.962 million to US$ 25.858 million.
Meanwhile, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a supplementary agreement to provide additional US$ 10 million to cover the additional expense. As a result, the total amount of ADB’s design related ADB loan went to US$ 27.60 million. Initially, ADB provided US$ 16.58 million for the design works of the bridge project.
In the latest cost increase proposal, the Bridge Division mentioned that the design works of the Padma Bridge have been completed and the appointment of a construction contractor is underway.
The total works of the Badma Bridge project was divided into 7 segments. These are construction of the main bridge, river training, construction of approach roads in Mawa and Jajira points, Service Area-2, consultant for construction supervision and consultant for management support. Of these, earth filling of service area-1 and service area-2 for rehabilitation has been completed. The earth filling of Mawa container yard has also been completed while that of Jajira container yard is in progress.
UNB
