The Ministry of Communications will immediately sign an agreement with the Korean firm to start the main work of the Padma bridge
The government is set appoint a South Korean company as the construction supervision consultant (CSE) for main bridge and river training of the much-talked-about Padma Bridge at a cost of Tk383.15 crore.
The appointment of Korean Expressway Corporation for the project was authorised after a proposal from the Bridges Division under the Ministry of Communications was approved by the cabinet committee on public purchase yesterday.
After the cabinet committee meeting, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, also the alternative chairman of the committee, told the media: “We gave our consent to the proposal for appointing the foreign company for constructing the main Padma bridge and river training.”
He also said the Ministry of Communications will immediately sign an agreement with the Korean firm to start the main work of the Padma bridge.
Sources at the ministry told the Dhaka Tribune that the Bridges Division had already implemented around 25% of the project as of September this year by awarding work orders to different consultants and contractors for the four key components of the Padma bridge.
The government has already allocated Tk8,100 crore for its fast-track Padma bridge project in the budget for the current fiscal year.
On September 10, the government awarded river training work to Chinese company Sinohydro.
On June 17, it signed an agreement with a Chinese firm, China Major Bridge Engineering Company, for the construction of around 6.15-kilometre main part of the Padma bridge, which is set to start by November this year and end by 2018.
Because of a three-year delay for alleged corruption which was raised by the World Bank, the cost of the project, to be implemented solely with government funding, would increase by around Tk4,000 crore from the current estimate of Tk20,507 crore, said officials of Bridges Division that now aims to complete the long-awaited project by 2018, three years behind the original schedule.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
