Bangladesh’s authorities has allowed a Chinese language contractor to renew building of an elevated fast bus route after suspending the undertaking within the wake of a girder falling and killing 5 folks in a automotive final month, officers mentioned.
Authorities have additionally granted the Gezhouba Group Firm, a road-building agency from mainland China, a one-year extension on the undertaking after it gave the federal government assurances about implementing security measures to stop different accidents from occurring, officers advised BenarNews.
“China’s Gezhouba Group Firm has been permitted to renew the development work as they’ve adopted security measures on the undertaking website. We wish them to complete the work as quickly as doable,” A.B.M Amin Ullah Nuri, the secretary of the Street Transport and Highways Division, advised BenarNews.
“The undertaking is already delayed; how lengthy will we make folks endure for the undertaking?” mentioned the official, who additionally chairs the state company implementing the Dhaka Bus Speedy Transit line (DBRT).
The lethal accident on Aug. 15 was the most recent mishap to happen throughout building of the 20.2-km (12.5-mile) overhead fast transit bus hall. 5 members of a household, together with two youngsters, had been killed when the falling girder crushed their automotive as they had been driving beneath the development website of the elevated transit line. A newlywed couple, who had been additionally within the automotive, had been severely injured.
A authorities investigation into the incident discovered that the China Gezhouba Group Co., a subsidiary of the China Gezhouba Group Corp. (CGGC), was liable for the accident by not guaranteeing folks’s security in or close to the undertaking website.
The undertaking, valued at 42.6 billion taka (U.S. $450 million), is being financed by the Asian Growth Financial institution (ADB), Nuri mentioned.
As soon as accomplished, the transit line will join the neighboring Gazipur district with Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal Worldwide Airport, in a undertaking that goals to ease site visitors congestion on a busy freeway connecting the 2 factors.
“We have now to work with the ADB to take motion towards the contracting firm. We’re working with them on this regard,” Nuri mentioned with out elaborating.
In 2016, the Gezhouba Group was awarded the contract for the undertaking. Its authentic end-date was June 2020, however the undertaking obtained delayed a number of occasions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and the corporate was then given a brand new deadline for ending the undertaking by June 2021.
“Up to now, practically 80 % of the undertaking has been completed. We wish the bodily building of the undertaking to complete by March subsequent 12 months. So, now we have proposed the planning fee to increase the deadline for the corporate to December 2023,” Shafiqul Islam, the managing director of the DBRT firm, advised BenarNews.
When requested whether or not the federal government was contemplating cancelling the contract and discovering a brand new builder for the transit line, he replied: “That is very tough to alter the contractor of an ongoing undertaking. We is not going to change the contractor CGGC.”
“There are … provisions for punishment within the contract, however making use of the provisions is lifelike,” Islam added.
The Chinese language embassy in Dhaka didn’t instantly reply to BenarNews requests for remark.
Lawsuit
Ten folks, all Bangladeshi nationals related with the Chinese language firm, have been arrested in reference to the Aug. 15 accident however have been freed on bail.
In the meantime, a plaintiff in a lawsuit introduced towards the corporate over the most recent incident advised BenarNews that senior officers of CGGC went to his dwelling in Dhaka just lately.
“They provided us Tk two million for every household as compensation in order that we might withdraw the case. However now we have not accepted their proposal,” mentioned Md. Afran Mondal Babu, who’s suing the corporate for culpable murder not amounting to homicide.
“The police had not arrested any official of the Chinese language firm. Some native workers of the undertaking had been arrested and all of them have been [released] on bail,” mentioned Babu.
“We have now requested for Tk 30 million (U.S. $287,240) for the settlement. And so they rejected our supply,” he mentioned.
BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated information service.