Dhaka Times Report. Cox's Bazar is an important place of tourism in Bangladesh. But the airport here has been neglected for a long time. Although the government had undertaken a development project worth 500 crore rupees due to long-standing demands, it is going to be canceled due to irregularities and corruption!
It is revealed that the government allocated 500 crores for the development of Cox's Bazar Airport in view of the long-standing demand. But the Tk 500 crore Cox's Bazar airport development project is being canceled due to irregularities, corruption and arbitrariness of the project manager. Meanwhile, the Cabinet Committee on Procurement has decided to invite tenders for the project again. The file has been sent to the Prime Minister's Office for approval. Experts have said that if a new tender is called in this situation, the project cost will increase and the government will lose about 300 crore rupees. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Civil Aviation has issued a show-cause notice to Project Director Habibur Rahman on the charges of irregularities and arbitrariness.
A top official of Civil Aviation said that all the achievements of the last three years are going to be lost due to this arbitrariness of the project manager. On the other hand, it has been alleged that an influential party in the ministry has become desperate to give work to another company at a price of Tk 40 crore higher than giving the work order to the lowest bidder. For this, when the proposal for the appointment of the project contractor was presented for approval in the meeting of the cabinet committee on procurement, a minister himself objected to give the work to the lowest bidder in opposition to the CPTU review panel. It is known that the minister expressed his interest to work on behalf of the third lowest bidder participating in the tender.
Denying this allegation, a top civil aviation official said that everything was done properly. If the project manager had not concealed the information, there would have been no problem in awarding the tender work order. Allegedly, the names of the companies that were finalized for the implementation of the project were strategically finalized by a syndicate after the bank guarantees given to them did not expire. For some mysterious reason, the project director concealed this information and presented the entire project to the cabinet committee. The director was alleged to have acted on their behalf to favor the lowest bidder for the project. After this incident, it has been alleged that the project director went to Spain, Switzerland and Nepal with a civil aviation contractor with the money of a Spanish company. Engineer Miraj Uddin, an influential civil aviation contractor also went to Spain with him on the same flight. It is alleged that a foreign contractor who participated in the Cox's Bazar project has a close relationship with this contractor. It is believed that as a bribe from that company, the project director went on a foreign trip with tickets to Spain and Switzerland. Due to these reasons, a show cause notice has been given to project director Habibur Rahman from Civil Aviation Authority and Aviation Ministry. In this situation, there is uncertainty about the future of this project, which has been running for three years. Project stakeholders said that if new tenders are to be called now, then it will not be possible to start this project during the current government's tenure. At the same time, the project of 500 crore rupees will increase to 800 crore rupees. This will cost the government at least 300 crore rupees.
Regarding the project on June 20, the aviation ministry sent to the chairman of civil aviation, it is said that the procurement proposal for the appointment of the contractor for the project titled Cox's Bazar Airport Development Project (Phase I) was presented to the Cabinet Committee on Government Procurement on June 20. During the discussion in that meeting, the secretary could not give any answer as the ministry was not informed about the issue of bid bond. Besides, the bid bond submitted by Corolla Corporation as the local representative of Kuanta through Dhaka Bank has not been disclosed to the ministry before. As a result, the secretary felt embarrassed in that meeting. Because of this, the project director Habibur Rahman was given one day to explain why the matter was not informed to the ministry. Meanwhile, the project director Habibur Rahman has been mourned by the civil aviation after receiving the letter from the ministry. It is said in that letter that Habibur Rahman has hidden many details of the project from the tender evaluation committee. Because of this, he has been ordered to give an explanation.
According to a source in the Prime Minister's Office, it will take at least a year if a fresh tender is called. It will not be possible to start the project in this period, which is currently the priority of the government. Besides, three years have already passed. At this time, the project cost will increase by at least 300 crore rupees, which will be burdensome for the government. Apart from this, delay in starting the project work will disrupt the government's target of attracting global tourism. For this, the Prime Minister's office is trying to start work in some other way without canceling the project. However, a member of the cabinet committee said that if the project work is started with sloppiness without calling for a new tender, then a case will be filed in the Anti-Corruption Commission. Everyone should be guilty of that. For this reason, no member of the cabinet committee on procurement is willing to do any kind of work with Gonjamil. However, the members of the cabinet committee have ordered to take strict measures including a departmental case against civil aviation officer, project director Habibur Rahman for this irregularity and corruption.
Note that since Cox's Bazar is an important tourist city of the country. Therefore, steps were taken to upgrade Cox's Bazar Airport to an international standard airport for the purpose of establishing fast air communication system during natural disasters in coastal areas. As a part of this initiative, Cox's Bazar Airport Development (Phase I) project was accepted from the government. The cost of this project is estimated at 3 thousand 265 crores. The project for the period from October 2009 to June 2013 was approved by Ekne on 29 October 2009. It is known that under the Cox's Bazar development project, the size of the runway will increase. The current runway length of Cox's Bazar airport is 6 thousand 775 feet. It will be increased to 9 thousand feet. The width of the runway will be increased from 120 feet to 200 feet. Apart from that, it was decided to increase the strength of the runway, installation of airfield lighting system, purchase of fire fighting vehicles and installation of state-of-the-art communication equipment. But due to arbitrariness and corruption of one person this project is going to be closed today. Who will take responsibility for the cost increase if the project is taken up by calling for new tenders? This is everyone's question now.
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