Railway Ministry officials expressed concern over China delaying signing the loan deal for laying rail links on two ends of the Padma Bridge.
They said that the Chinese embassy in Dhaka was keeping mum despite repeated request from the railway ministry.
They expressed fears that delays in signing the deal could make it difficult to start laying the rail links in January as scheduled.
Officials told New Age that the railway ministry was awaiting a response from the Chinese embassy to sign the loan agreement.
On august 8, Bangladesh Railway and China Railway Group Limited, signed the deal for laying the link rails.
CRGL got the work without tenders.
China agreed to lend Tk 24,749.05 crore for the project from its EXIM Bank.
Bangladesh government would provide remaining Tk 10,239.81 crore for laying link rail totaling 225km on two sides of the Padma Bridge.
The link rails would be laid to link Dhaka with Faridpur via Mawa and Bahnga on the eastern end and to Bhanga with Jessore on the western end.
Padma Bridge Rail Link project director Sukumar Bhowmick told New Age Saturday that singing the credit deal should have been completed by now.
BR wants to begin the work immediately as the government took it as a fast track priority project, he said.
The government is keen to start the train service on the Padma Bridge from the day of its scheduled inauguration on December 2018, he added.
Economic Relations Division officials attributed the delay to Chinese EXIM Bank’s scrutiny process.
They said that scrutiny was taking longer than expected as the loan amount would be staggering.
The delay prompted the Railway Ministry to call an inter-ministry meeting for this week to be chaired by railway ministry secretary Feroz Salah Uddin.
Former caretaker government adviser Mirza Azizul Islam said that the government should be careful about giving work to Chinese firms with a reputation to deliberately delaying implementation.
He said that slow implementation of the four-lane Dhaka- Chittagong Highway by a Chinese firm escalated the cost.
He also cited the example of another Chinese firm’s failure to install central effluent treatment plant and its dumping yard at the tannery park at Savar.
They said that the Chinese embassy in Dhaka was keeping mum despite repeated request from the railway ministry.
They expressed fears that delays in signing the deal could make it difficult to start laying the rail links in January as scheduled.
Officials told New Age that the railway ministry was awaiting a response from the Chinese embassy to sign the loan agreement.
On august 8, Bangladesh Railway and China Railway Group Limited, signed the deal for laying the link rails.
CRGL got the work without tenders.
China agreed to lend Tk 24,749.05 crore for the project from its EXIM Bank.
Bangladesh government would provide remaining Tk 10,239.81 crore for laying link rail totaling 225km on two sides of the Padma Bridge.
The link rails would be laid to link Dhaka with Faridpur via Mawa and Bahnga on the eastern end and to Bhanga with Jessore on the western end.
Padma Bridge Rail Link project director Sukumar Bhowmick told New Age Saturday that singing the credit deal should have been completed by now.
BR wants to begin the work immediately as the government took it as a fast track priority project, he said.
The government is keen to start the train service on the Padma Bridge from the day of its scheduled inauguration on December 2018, he added.
Economic Relations Division officials attributed the delay to Chinese EXIM Bank’s scrutiny process.
They said that scrutiny was taking longer than expected as the loan amount would be staggering.
The delay prompted the Railway Ministry to call an inter-ministry meeting for this week to be chaired by railway ministry secretary Feroz Salah Uddin.
Former caretaker government adviser Mirza Azizul Islam said that the government should be careful about giving work to Chinese firms with a reputation to deliberately delaying implementation.
He said that slow implementation of the four-lane Dhaka- Chittagong Highway by a Chinese firm escalated the cost.
He also cited the example of another Chinese firm’s failure to install central effluent treatment plant and its dumping yard at the tannery park at Savar.
Source: New Age
