Unskilled consultant, Monthly salary Tk 20 lakh!

The country's largest rail route is being constructed under the Padma Rail Connection Project. The length of this railway from Dhaka to Jessore via Mawa, Bhanga, Narail is 215.22 km. China Railway Engineering Corporation (CREC) is the contractor for the Chinese-funded GTZ-based project. However, the foreign consultant of the project is very incompetent, although his monthly salary is around Rs 20 lakh.

Meanwhile, the director of the project is not a railway engineer, so he has no previous experience in railways. Besides, there were three problems in the design of the rail link project. This has created a conflict situation with the rail link with the Padma Bridge. As a result, the construction of the viaduct (flyover) towards Mawa has been stopped.Padma Rail Connection Project: Unskilled consultant with a salary of Tk 20 lakh!
Padma Rail Connection Project: Unskilled consultant with a salary of Tk 20 lakh!

Although this is not the first time, 22 consultants of the project have been replaced before. Frequent consultant replacements and inefficiencies have led to fears of disruption to the project.

According to the data, the foreign consultant senior quality surveyor of the project is very incompetent. Although the monthly salary of one of the experts of the consulting team is 19 lakh 61 thousand 250 rupees. However, those involved in the project are dissatisfied with the performance of this high paid consultant. Therefore, Railways has taken initiative to replace the consultant. An inter-ministerial meeting was held on the issue yesterday.

It was informed at the meeting that Rosando F. Della Cruz ZR, a foreign consultant, has been working as a Senior Quality Supervisor of the Construction Supervision Consultant Team since October 19, 2016 to ensure smooth functioning of the Padma Bridge Rail Link Project. He has been appointed for a period of 50 months with a defect liability period. However, 24 months have passed since his appointment.

Although the aforementioned consultants have failed to perform as expected since engaging in the project. He has also been expressing inability to solve the problems sent by the quantity surveyors engaged in the field. It is very difficult to get a clear opinion from his preparation in any meeting. In this context, senior officials have expressed dissatisfaction with the activities of the consultant.

In this case, when a proposal was sought from the concerned organization ACE for the replacement of the consultant, they initially selected Ralph Broghton. The Railway Consultative Replacement Committee has recommended his appointment for the remaining 28 months. His monthly salary has also been fixed at 19 lakh 71 thousand 250 rupees.

If you want to know about the Padma Rail Connection Project Director Golam Fakhruddin A. Chowdhury declined to comment.

Although the replacement of the incompetent consultant of the Padma rail connection project is seen as positive, Bangladesh University of Engineering (BUET) Professor of Civil Engineering. Shamsul Haque. He told Share Biz that work on the project was hampered if the consultant was incompetent. So the railways have taken the initiative to replace the consultant. Although many have kept the matter a secret, the railways have done a good job. BUET's opinion was sought in this regard. The consultant also agreed to leave the project voluntarily due to incompetence.

According to sources, not only the consultants, but also the director of the Padma Rail Link project is dissatisfied with the railways. Because he is not a railway officer or engineer. The Additional Secretary was appointed as the Project Director by the Ministry of Public Administration. So he has no previous experience in railway construction. Despite this, his term has recently been extended for another two years.

Meanwhile, there are clashes at several places along the road connecting the Padma Bridge with the viaduct (flyover) of the Padma Rail Link Project. Of these, the problems are more in the P25-1 and P25-2 pillars of the viaduct. CREC, the contractor of the Padma Rail Connection Project, has cut off some parts of the connecting road for the Padma Bridge while constructing these two pillars. Besides, the height of the two pillars is less than six meters from the ground, which will obstruct the traffic on the connecting road.

In view of this, work is underway to revise the design of that part of the Padma Rail Link project. In this case, the two pillars may need to be demolished and rebuilt.

It is to be noted that for the Padma rail connection project, a conditional loan (buyers credit) is being taken from Exim Bank of China. However, the construction cost of the project has been increased by one point in 2016. The cost is 39 thousand 246 crore. Of this, China will lend Tk 21,038.79 crore. The remaining Tk 17,210.31 crore will be provided from government funds. However, in 2016, the cost of the project was estimated at around 34 thousand 979 crore.

Meanwhile, the construction cost of the railway has recently been increased by another Tk 1,154 crore. The construction cost of the railway is 40 thousand 401 crore. In addition, due to the design complexity of the project, the construction cost of the railway will increase further. Apart from this, project delays may also increase due to implementation delays. These costs may have to be adjusted towards the end of the construction of the railway.