DSCC footbridge construction project in limbo

DOT Desk
The construction of six footbridges, including three with lifts, in Dhaka South City Corporation area has got into uncertainty though the construction works were scheduled to begin by November this year, reports The New Age.
Corporation officials said three footbridges with lift facility to ease movement of senior citizens and physically challenged people had stuck into tender complexities.
Tenders were invited twice and bidders also submitted requests for proposal, but no competent bidder with adequate technical qualifications was found, said DSCC executive engineer (planning and design) Tanvir Ahmed. As a result, no construction firm was engaged yet to execute the work, he added. A fresh tender process was initiated at a meeting on December 2 and a proposal was now awaiting the mayor’s approval, he mentioned. The construction might begin in the first week of January next year if the new tender proposal got approval, said Tanvir.
He also said that plan and design for the footbridges were drawn. Considering woes of the physically challenged, elderly, and women and children in the city, the DSCC took initiatives to set up the three footbridges with lifts, DSCC additional chief engineer and project director Md Asaduzzaman said.
He said the construction work was supposed to begin by November 30.
The footbridges would be set up at Nayabazar (near Babubazar Bridge), Chankharpool (near Dhaka Medical College Hospital) and Matsya Bhaban (Kakrail Road), according the project proposal.
Lifts would be on both sides of the footbridges and there would be dedicated lift operators to assist the users, it said.
The lifts would be glass-covered, popularly known as capsule lifts, so that that would not get easily damaged in rain or storm, the proposal added.
Though the Dhaka North City Corporation set up two footbridges with moving staircase facility — one at Banani in 2014 and another in front of Shahjalal International Airport in 2016, for physically challenged and elderly people, the projects failed to become
Except these three footbridges, DSCC had a plan to set up three more footbridges, without elevators, at Shakharibazar, Kutubkhali and Kajla areas under an estimated cost Tk 28 crore project, said officials.
The corporation, however, failed to manage places on the roads to set up these three footbridges, said DSCC traffic and engineering department executive engineer Rajib Khadem
At present, DSCC has 32 footbridges where DNCC has 49, Roads and Highways Department has five and Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha has one footbridge.