Costs high, not lives

Though built spending huge funds, often with an additional budget, many highways and other establishments including bridges across the country are not long-lasting and sustainable as what experts find lack of skills, care, and transparency in construction work responsible for such a fragile state.

For example, the much important Dhaka-Chittagong highway was constructed spending Tk 16 crore a kilometer to upgrade it to four lanes. But within a year, the pitch and pavement of the highways have been downed somewhere.

Again this road, one of the most expensive roads in the country, became fluffed by the internal pressure and the other causes. The road divider is also broken.

More costs have been spent to upgrade the four lanes on the Joydebpur-Mymensingh highway, where about Tk 21 crore has been spent per kilometer. The same problem has occurred on this road.

The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has constructed both highways with maximum importance. The construction work was supervised by the observers of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). Experienced and senior engineers of the department worked as project directors. Even after that, the roads are not sustainable.

An additional cost has been spent in constructing the highways in the country although it is not sustainable. The Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Department (IMED) of the Ministry of Planning has an observation in this regard.

The department reports that the bulk of the projects on roads, highways, and its establishment are being damaged within a few days of the construction with a few exceptions.

The IMED put forward the assessment-related report at a recent meeting of the Standing Committee on the Ministry of Planning of the National Assembly.

The assessment has been given on the completion of 96 road construction or development projects completed under the Seventh Five-Year Plan from 2016 to 2020 in the report.

The RHD is spending a staggering amount of money over constructing or revamping or developing not only four-lane highways but also various national, regional, and district roads.

The IMED’s observation in this regard is that the roads and highways are starting to deteriorate within one and half years, sometimes before this time frame after the completion of development or renovation work.

There are complaints among policymakers and lawmakers about the sustainability of these expensive roads.

Ekabbar Hossain, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges, thinks that the roads were not sustainable because of the poor workmanship of contractors apart from various technical faults.

He told the Bangladesh News that the officers or contractors who work in the field level are always looking for their own profit. They do not consider the matter of whether the country is being harmed for it.

They could not use the standard and quality materials that are supposed to be used in the construction phase resulting in the roads and highways not going to last long as it is expected.

The upgrading cost of the four lanes on the highway from Tangail to Rangpur is being spent more than Tk 62 crore per kilometer. Similarly, the construction cost of the ongoing Joydebpur-Elenga four-lane highway has also increased to Tk 88.77 crore per kilometer.

During the period of the construction, ratings have appeared on the important highways connecting Dhaka with the north and north-west of the country.

The expensive roads in the country are being made, but they are not sustainable. Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) Professor Dr. Md. Hadiuzzaman has identified overall four reasons behind it.

These are overloading of vehicles, usages of conventional bitumen, the inadequate drainage system in hat-bazaar areas along allowing vehicles to move on during the road construction.

Emphasizing the issue of bitumen, Hadiuzzaman said, “Bitumen is one of the reasons behind the roads not sustainable in our country.”

It is a demand for the time being to bring change in the bitumen. Polymer-modified bitumen or PMB may be the best option in this case.

Some more problems in the case of the construction of these roads and highways have been come out in the IMED reports. These include an increase in project cost, increase in duration, frequent change of project director, non-position of project managers in the project area, faulty development project proposal (DPP), the commencement of project work without a feasibility study, non-testing of soil, etc.

The department complained that they have made various recommendations at different times to rectify their faults after monitoring these projects. In many cases, they were not taken into account.

The IMED’s observation on the four-lane project of the Dhaka-Chittagong highway says that the highway is being damaged due to an excessive number of unauthorized heavy vehicles. Rapid regular maintenance and upkeep are required to ensure full utility and durability of the highway for growing goods and passenger vehicles. Otherwise, there is a danger that the road, which is considered as the main highway of the country’s economy, will be damaged and unsuitable for vehicular traffic.

In this regard, IMED Secretary Pradeep Ranjan Chakraborty told the Bangladesh News that IMED is reviewing the rationale and necessity of spending money on the construction of roads and highways. 

Chakraborty also informed that the Parliamentary Committee on the Ministry of Planning has already been informed about various technical and practical issues.

“We’re trying to complete quality projects through maximum use and efficiency of people’s money. However, the ministries and departments concerned need more responsibility in order to maintain the quality of the roads and highways,” IMED Secretary said.

“In particular, the monthly review meeting of the concerned ministry needs to be more efficient and accurate. Then there may be solutions to many errors and omissions. Besides, PSC and PIC committees need to be more active. At that stage, IMED is trying to look at them as efficiently as possible. That is why supervision at the field level has been intensified,” he also said.

On the other hand, Abdus Sabur, the chief engineer of the RHD, thinks that the way country’s roads and highways are present as bad; they are not bad as it is in reality. 

“It would not be possible to make all the roads better in a day. Gradually all the roads will be of good quality. We are working towards that goal. As of now, everyone’s expectations have increased a lot, we also have to meet those expectations,” Sabur told the Bangladesh News.