POBNEWS24, Dhaka Sept 1, 2024 : After Sheikh Hasina left the country after resigning as Prime Minister on August 5, the work on an ongoing project with an Indian loan has come to a standstill. The work of this project to upgrade about 50 km road from Brahmanbaria’s Ashuganj to Akhaura border to four lanes has been stopped.
After investigation, it is known that the officials of the Indian contractor company Fcons Infrastructure Limited have left the work and returned to the country. It is not certain when they will return. As a result, there is uncertainty about the implementation of the project.
This project to upgrade the existing road to four lanes from Ashuganj seaport in Brahmanbaria district to Akhaura border was taken up in 2017. Once revised, the cost of the project stands at Tk 5,791 crore. Out of this, Indian debt is 2 thousand 982 crores. This money is being provided from the second Indian Line of Credit (LoC). The remaining 2 thousand 809 crores will be paid by the government. The project is scheduled to expire in June 2025. Although 50 percent of the project has been completed till June 2024.
Contractor wind in political change
India’s relationship with the recently resigned Sheikh Hasina government was quite deep. As a result, Exim Bank of India has given Line of Credit (LoC) to various projects in Bangladesh. Among them, the implementation of the project to upgrade the Ashuganj-Akhaura road to four lanes through the second LoC was started. The Indian debt-backed project rules require Indian contractors to be hired and 65 percent of the physical project’s goods and services to be procured from that country.
In 2018, Indian contracting firm Fcons Infrastructure Limited was appointed after passing Ekneke. They are entrusted with the responsibility of implementing all the three packages of the project. Due to Corona, there was not much work in 2019, 2020 and 2021. The project started in full swing in 2022. Along with local engineers and laborers, around 300 Indian nationals worked on the project.
But everything changed after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on August 5. The next day, the contracting firm Fcons Infrastructure withdrew all its Indian workers from the project area. Later they were taken to their native India. Most of the workers are said to cross into India through the Akhaura-Agartala border. They have not joined the work yet.
In this regard, the project manager said. Shamim Ahmed said, “After the political change on August 5, all the workers of the contractor went to India due to security reasons. There has already been informal contact with them. They said that they will return to work only after receiving a green signal from the Indian High Commission regarding security.
Various items of the project are also now in a very unprotected condition. Meanwhile, people’s suffering has increased due to half-finished work. As there is a ditch on one side of the highway, the traffic has to take a lot of risk. Heavy traffic is created. This is increasing the suffering of drivers and passengers.
IMED will inspect the project
The Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Department (IMED) of the Ministry of Planning is planning to visit the project soon to know the ground situation as the work has been stopped for a month. Meanwhile, IMED secretary Abul Kashem. Mohiuddin ordered the concerned officials.
IMED Secretary Abul Kashem. Mohiuddin told UNI that an inspection will be conducted to find out the problems in the field implementation of the project. After the inspection the next course of action will be decided.
Indian debt uncertainty
Meanwhile, there is uncertainty about the future of Indian debt. Along with the ongoing projects in the Ministry of Planning, the work of verifying the rationale of all the project proposals has started. Ongoing and proposed projects along Indian three LoCs will also be evaluated.
People involved in the project feel that most of the ongoing and proposed projects under the LoC are taken up in Indian interests. For example, the four-lane road project from Ashuganj to Akhaura will be more useful for bringing and taking Indian goods under transit.
India pledged a total of $736 billion in loans to Bangladesh in 2010, 2016 and 2017 across three LoCs. But despite the promise, the money was not released at the desired rate. As of last, only 1.8 billion dollars have been discounted in total.
So far 36 projects have been taken up in the infrastructure sector including road and rail communication, energy, construction of roads in the three LoCs. Of these, 15 have been completed. Eight projects are ongoing. The rest of the projects are at the stage of hiring consultants and contractors or preparing project proposals.
