The government is spending around Tk 15000 crore each year only in sketching designs for development projects due to want of innovative and creative ideas.
Innovation ideas for project adoption and implementation could save a huge amount of money for the country. Due to lack of innovation at these levels of a project, thousands of crores of Taka are being spent every year, the major amount of which is going out of the country, said concerned sources.
Presently, modern methods are not used to estimate the cost during drafting a new project. After completing the design of a project, for the rest of the work, the authority concerned depends on a consultant, who estimates the total cost at their discretion.
In the beginning, it creates an opportunity to estimate several times higher. As each project carries an opportunity to add an average of 20 percent extra money during estimation which is known as front-loading, sources said adding that it makes a chance to distribute the amount at the beginning (during estimation).
On the other hand, 10 percent mobilization or advance billing is made before the work starts. In this way, even if money is raised in different stages, the work of the project cannot be completed smoothly in a real sense. As a result, the project cost is increased. Since this process engages all parties, the issue of monitoring is overlooked here.
Meanwhile, there are some such projects which have not seen light but a large sum has gone as consultant fees.
Nowadays, everywhere modeling is created after design work. But Building Information Modeling (BIM) modeling reduces costs by about 22 percent to 25 percent. It also saves about 19 to 23 percent of the time.
IT expert Muhammad Mahboob Ali in this regard said, “Bangladesh has achieved significant progress in information technology. The infrastructural development of this sector is also accelerating. It is possible to reduce cost and ensure quality using information technology during project adoption”.
“If the project adoption stage could be estimated through the use of information technology, it would be possible to save about 20 percent of the project cost per year”, he added.