Dhaka-Sylhet Highway expansion project should not be given to parties with poor records

The Roads and Highways Department is going to give two contractors with poor track records the job of implementing the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway expansion project. The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase (CCGP) has approved their appointments for one of the project’s six packages, and the RHD is expected to sign contracts with them.
Sinohydro Engineering Bureau 8 Corporation Ltd, a subsidiary of Chinese firm Sinohydro, which earned a bad name for its work in the Dhaka-Chattogram Highway expansion project, is going to be awarded a Tk 576.05 crore contract. Toma Construction & Company Ltd (TCCL), a local company accused of being reluctant in several projects, and a Turkish company, will be awarded a Tk 896.81 crore contract.
The RHD is implementing the Tk 16,918.59-crore project to turn the 210km Dhaka-Sylhet Highway into a four-lane one by adding a service lane on each side. The authorities decided to conduct implementation under six packages and hire 13 contractors for quick execution. They have already signed contracts with two China-Bangladesh joint ventures to implement package 1. Sinohydro Corporation had won the contract to expand around 140km of the 192km Dhaka-Chattogram Highway into a four-lane highway in January 2010. They were supposed to complete the work within January 2013. But the firm was reluctant from the beginning after it got the contract at a lower rate. It also demanded additional money to finish the job.
TCCL is currently involved in two railway projects — the Chattogram-Cox’s Bazar Rail Link and the Akhaura-Laksam rail line expansion project. Toma, along with a Chinese firm, was assigned for a part of the Chattogram-Cox’s Bazar project, while Max Infrastructure Ltd of Bangladesh, along with another Chinese firm, was assigned the other part. The firms are notorious for wasting the public exchequer with cost overruns and delay project completion. Wasting public money in this way is a crime and the government promotes fraud by awarding them the contracts.