Khulna Shipyard Road thorn in side of city dwellers

Khulna Bureau :

The Khulna Shipyard Road, which is only 4 kilometers long, was supposed to be widened and developed in two years, but the work has not been completed even in 11 years. On the contrary, it has been delayed six times and the cost of the project has increased by more than Tk 150 crore due to the extension of the deadline. Despite expressing anger from the highest echelons of the government over the slow pace of this project, the situation has not changed.
On the other hand, due to long complications over land acquisition and negligence of the contractor, this urgent project has now become a thorn in the side of the Khulna Development Authority (KDA). A new complication has arisen in the work of installing the Khulna WASA sewage pipeline. After the political change in the country, the WASA project is also closed as the foreign contractor returned to his country. Since it is closed, KDA is unable to carry out road work.
As the work has not been completed for a long time, commuters and local residents are facing indescribable hardship on the dilapidated road. Expressing their anger over this, they say that this project has increased our suffering rather than the development of the road. During the rains, water accumulates in various holes, and during the winter, the road cannot be driven on due to dust.
It is known that the ‘Khulna Shipyard Road Widening and Development’ project was approved by ECNEC in July 2013. The two-year project was supposed to be completed in June 2015 at a cost of 98.9 million taka. But the project implementing agency KDA could not start the work on time. As a result, the target of completing the work by 2018 was set to be extended by one year in the first phase and two years in the second phase. Since that target was not met, the project was specially revised by increasing the cost by about 28 crore taka.
Even after increasing the cost through special revision, the work could not start. Later, the period was extended by another year in the third phase, another 3 years through the first revision for the fourth time, two years in the fifth phase and finally by six months in the sixth phase. That period is ending this December.
Sources said that despite repeated extensions, there is no chance of the project being completed this month. Because there is still a lot of work to be done. Therefore, efforts are being made to extend the period for another year for the seventh time. In the meantime, KDA had proposed to extend the time till December 2025 to complete the project. After getting approval, the two-year project period has been extended to 14 years. Even then, there are doubts about whether it will be implemented at all.
According to KDA sources, WASA’s work was supposed to be completed in October last year. But after the July coup, the work was not completed as the engineers of the contractor and consulting firm returned to their countries. WASA had asked for time till February 2025 to complete the remaining work. Due to this, it is not possible to complete KDA’s work by December, so a one-year extension has been proposed.
In this regard, Khulna Development Authority Chief Engineer Kazi Md. Sabirul Alam said that initially the project work was hampered due to land acquisition complications. Although it was approved in 2013, the work started in 2022. Later, the project work slowed down due to Khulna WASA. The work of the foreign contractors and consultants in the pipeline installation work was stopped in the middle as they left for their own countries. Otherwise, it would have been completed on time. That is why a one-year extension has been proposed. WASA is working on the pipeline installation. We are working as soon as their work is completed. Despite the problems in the middle, the work is now in full swing. I hope the work will be completed within the latest one-year extension.