It is heartening to learn that work on the country’s mega projects is now gaining momentum following a lull since February for the coronavirus outbreak, ushering optimism about begetting positive changes in people’s livelihood and boosting the country’s economic growth.
A report published in this daily on Monday tells us that there is no shortage of funds; all project officials, engineers and other stakeholders are trying to complete the construction work within the stipulated time.
Reportedly, work on the 2400 MW Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, the biggest power generation facility, 1320 MW Rampal Power project and metro rail are progressing as scheduled. More than 80 per cent work on the much-anticipated Padma Bridge has already been completed while work on the 1200 MW coal-fired power plant in Matarbari of Maheshkhali has witnessed significant progress.
While it cannot be denied that the present government has been relentlessly working to reshape the country’s transportation and power sector, it is also true that we have seen apathy in implementation of most of the development schemes taken up by the government over the last 10 years.
Timely implementation of all the mega projects will fuel the
country’s economic growth, and in order to do that concerted
efforts from all the stakeholders is a must
Experts are of the opinion that due to frequent revision of the projects, the implementation costs continue to increase and the projects are not completed within the scheduled period. Moreover, the sudden coronavirus outbreak has increased the construction cost and delayed the implementation of the projects as many foreign engineers, consultants and workers left the country in late March when the shutdown began to rein in the spread of the coronavirus.
Addressing the delay in implementation of a number of projects, the Parliamentary Committee on Government Assurances earlier asked all ministries to attain timely completion of all the projects with the fund sanctioned earlier. Also the parliamentary watchdog recommended the ministries to ensure constant vigilance over the ongoing mega projects. Therefore, alongside increasing budgetary allocations, more efforts are needed on the part of the authorities concerned to speed up the implementation process of all the ongoing mega projects. We hope that the authorities concerned will do what is necessary to complete the mega projects timely.
When completed, we might see some key transformations in the country’s communication and power sector while traffic congestion in Dhaka city will be reduced and ultimately trade and tourism will be benefited immensely. Thus, timely implementation of all the mega projects will fuel the country’s economic growth, and in order to do that concerted efforts from all the stakeholders is a must. Also the government must try to curb corruption, ease bureaucratic tangle, and ensure proper monitoring to attain successful completion of all the development projects.
