New Kalurghat bridge to cost Tk 14,000cr now

GBNEWS24DESK//

A new rail-plus-road bridge at Kalurghat in Chattogram is going to cost almost 12 times the initial estimate because the authorities spent nine years doing multiple feasibility studies and designing and redesigning the bridge.

In 2014, the government decided to build the new bridge and decommission the British-era single-lane rail and road bridge there.

In 2018, a Detailed Project Proposal (DPP) was prepared for a single rail line and double-lane road bridge that would cost Tk 1,163.27 crore.

Now, the bridge would have double-line dual-gauge rail lines and a double-lane road on the same deck. The bridge is going to cost about Tk 14,000 crore and South Korea, last month, gave consent for a loan.

Apart from the design changes, multiple feasibility studies, delays, the high price of construction materials, and having to give vessels plying the Karnaphuli more clearance are blamed for the cost escalation.

Since it would take 2028 to build the new bridge, Bangladesh Railway will also have to keep footing the old bridge’s repair bills, which can be over Tk 50 crore.

BR has hired a Buet team to give recommendations for the restoration of the bridge as later this year it is going to open the Dhaka-Chattogram-Cox’s Bazar rail line, of which the bridge is part.

The bridge built in 1931 over the Karnaphuli has become almost unsafe and the authorities have to repair the bridge occasionally to keep it usable. Trains have a speed limit of 10kmph on the bridge.

In 1962, the metre-gauge single-line rail bridge was reconfigured so that vehicles could use it too.

People from Boalkhali upazila, east of Patiya and south of Rangunia upazilas, and Chandgaon and Mohora areas have no alternative to the bridge to cross the river.

SAGA OF INDECISIONS

In April 2014, the government decided to build the new bridge in cooperation with South Korea.

In February 2015, the government sought technical help from the Economic Development Co-operation Fund (EDCF) of South Korea to carry out a feasibility study.

The study published in December 2015 recommended building a two-lane road and single-line rail bridge.

Four months after preparing a DPP for the new bridge with an estimated cost of Tk 1,163.27 crore, BR in October 2018 decided it would build a dedicated rail bridge with double lines.

In 2019, another feasibility study was launched but it was suspended as the authorities realised that Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority in November 2018 put the Karnaphuli in a different category for which the bridge would need to give more clearance to vessels.

In the meantime, BR continued to go back and forth over the design.