Bangladesh
Payra Bridge Payra Bridge: Chinese construction company requests extension of time for fourth time
Dhaka, May 22: The Payra Bridge was supposed to be functional in June this year, at least that's what Longjian Road and Bridge Construction, the Chinese contractor responsible for building the bridge, said when it applied for a third extension of time. In June 2020, they had promised to complete the work within a year.
But even during this period, the bridge could not be prepared for traffic. In addition, they have applied for an extension of 6 months, i.e. till February 2022.
Officials from the Roads and Bridges Department, however, said, "The contractor will not be given that much time. The remaining work may be given till October. But before that, we are pressuring the contractor to open the bridge in July or August. Hopefully, the bridge will be opened. The rest of the work can be done with."
After the feasibility study, the construction work of the bridge started in 2016. It was decided at the outset that the bridge would be built in a slightly different structure as it is a tourist area. The Department of Roads and Bridges took the initiative to build an extra dust bridge in the form of a suspension bridge. This is the second extra dust bridge in the country after the Kornafuli river in Chittagong. The government has allocated Tk 118 crore for the construction of the 1,470-meter-long bridge.
Longjian Road and Bridge Construction, a Chinese contractor, was awarded the contract to build the bridge. It was said that the construction of the bridge will be completed in April 2019. But the contractor wants time till 2020 in an application filed in February 2019 citing various complications including land acquisition. Despite the time given, they failed to complete the construction of the bridge in the second term. In the application for the time given in the third phase, they want to increase the allocation due to various reasons and for the third time till June 2021.
In response to the application, an additional allocation of Tk 118 crore was made and the time was extended till June this year. In the meantime, the work on the river part of the bridge has been completed, but the rest of the work, including the construction of approach roads and toll houses. However, the government has already fixed the toll rate for the movement of vehicles through this bridge. The authorities have done this with the idea that the bridge will be launched in June. But now, for the fourth time, they have applied for time till February 2022.
