A year ago, newly re-elected Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina identified six projects which are so important that their fast implementation would speed up the nation's progress before the expiry of her term. The six top priority projects involving $16 billion were placed under a Fast Track Project Monitoring Committee headed by the PM herself. The committee is supposed to sit every month to discuss th
e progress of these projects and remove all hurdles, including bureaucratic bottlenecks, to ensure that they are implemented as fast as possible. But in the last one year, the committee sat only thrice to discuss the projects -- Padma Bridge, deep-sea port in Sonadia, metro rail in Dhaka, a massive coal-fired power plant in Rampal, Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant and an LNG terminal in Maheshkhali. Of the six, Padma Bridge project is making good progress. Rooppur project, which requires completion of two phases before construction starts, has received attention of the Prime Minister's Office, and so far seen good progress. Similarly, the metro rail project has also made significant headway. But the Rampal power project is lagging behind the schedule. The tender for the LNG terminal project has not yet seen the light of the day. And there is no visible progress on the deep-sea port project. Advertisement Against this backdrop, the PM yesterday held the third meeting of the Fast Track Project Monitoring Committee. The $4.5 billon Matarbari coal-fired power plant (capacity 1,200MW) that secured Japanese funding mid last year was placed under this committee as the seventh high priority scheme and the deep-sea port project at Paira of Patuakhali as the eighth fast track project. PMO Principal Secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder, who heads another committee on implementation of the projects, prepared a progress report on the projects. “The monitoring committee has expressed its satisfaction at the progress of the fast track projects,” Sikder told The Daily Star last week. Among the projects, Padma multipurpose bridge and metro rail are making very good progress, while there is less advancement in construction of a thermal power plant at Rampal, he said. PADMA BRIDGE After going through many hurdles, the $3 billion self-financed Padma bridge project finally kicked off last year. The project has so far seen 16 percent progress in construction of approach roads, rehabilitation and development of the project area. During a recent visit, it was seen that construction work was going on in full swing on both banks of the Padma. Large cranes were brought there to lift heavy construction equipment. Big machines were being used for road construction and expansion work. Talking to The Daily Star, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said, “We are implementing the project fast so that people can use the bridge from 2018.” Though there have been conspiracies and propaganda against the project, Padma Bridge is no longer a dream but a reality now, he said. METRO RAIL The Tk 22,000-crore project got a major thrust upon receiving Japanese funding in February last. It is expected that the 20-km elevated rail project would be completed by 2020. In November last, the government signed a contract with a consortium of consultants who would prepare detailed project design, supervise construction and help manage Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit Development Project, the official name of the metro scheme. In December, the government enacted Metro Rail Act-2014 for the operation, control and regulation of the rail project. Obaidul said tender would be invited this month for construction of the metro rail. Basic design of the project is already done, and the government has secured 22 hectares of land for the metro rail depot, said the minister. The process of appointing consultant is going on. Besides, the tasks of soil test of the MRT-6 route and detailed design of the project are also underway, said the minister. Metro rail named as Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Line-6 route from Uttara to Bangladesh Bank will have 16 stations covering Uttara, Mirpur, Rokeya Sarani, Khamarbari, Sonargaon Hotel, Shahbagh, Doyel Chattar and Topkhana Road. ROOPPUR NUCLEAR POWER PLANT According to project officials, construction process of the 2,000MW nuclear power plant involves three phases. The first one has been completed; the second one is in progress as per schedule, and in some areas, ahead of the schedule. The progress of the Russia-funded power project would have been faster if the total project cost was clear to Bangladesh. While Bangladesh expects the 2,000MW nuclear power project to cost $2-3 billion, Russia now hints that the cost may go up to a staggering $10 billion. “The project cost and financing modalities will be set by the highest level of leadership of the two states. This will not be on the basis of a commercial decision,” said a project official. The two countries are now developing a contract for completing the preparation for the plant's construction. Russia's state-owned company Rosatom began working at Rooppur in mid 2013 and is now conducting a techno-feasibility study with a loan of half a billion US dollars. Rosatom's sister concern Atomenergoproekt, which is carrying out the study, has recently floated a tender for engineering survey, environmental monitoring and development of project documents for the Rooppur project site. The $18 million job will be completed by September, after which the plant's construction will begin. “Until now, we are ahead of the stipulated tasks,” Yeafesh Osman, state minister for science and technology, told The Daily Star yesterday. Construction of the nuclear reactor would start in early 2017 with a target of completing it by 2020 so that the plant can start trial operation the following year, said the state minister. LNG TERMINAL In 2010, Petrobangla floated the tender for constructing a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal to facilitate import of 500 million cubic feet (mmcf) LNG per day from the Middle East. The LNG would be very costly, but it would not only diversify the country's primary energy sources but also ensure that the gas-based industries and installations don't face a sudden death in the near future. Petrobangla, however, failed to secure a solid bid and stuck to an incomplete offer from a Singapore-US joint venture. As four years went by, Petrobangla finally made a draft agreement with the joint venture. But the government didn't give approval, as it was found to be too sketchy. Nobody knows when the project would see the light of the day. RAMPAL POWER PROJECT While public outcry couldn't stop the government from proceeding with the 1,320MW coal-fired Rampal power project near the Sundarbans, the Indo-Bangla joint venture company failed to float the tender to select a contractor for arranging the finance and building the plant. According to a high official of the company, the project's tender documents were still being refined. Other sources, however, said securing at least $1.7 billion finance for the project was a big hurdle, especially due to its proximity to the world's largest mangrove forest, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. DEEP-SEA PORT Due to “strategic reasons”, the government failed to make any headway with the Sonadia deep-sea port project in the last one year. There was a concrete proposal from China two years back, but Bangladesh didn't give it any concrete decision. PMO Principal Secretary Sobhan Sikder said, “Deep-sea port would not be needed immediately.” The government is considering Paira of Patuakhali, instead of Sonadia, as the site for the proposed deep-sea port. Two senior ministers told this newspaper that the PM discussed the project with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Gono Bhaban a week ago when he visited Dhaka. She stated that the government was considering building the port, involving at least three countries -- China, Japan and India -- among others. The PM also wanted to involve the UAE-based Dubai Port World Authority and the government of the Netherlands in the scheme. According to a Japanese study in 2009, Bangladesh could build the Tk 40,000-crore port at Sonadia in three phases.
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