Price Hike Of Construction Materials In Patuakhali
Contractors now seek scrap of govt work order
Contractors now seek cancellation of their contract deeds with government offices in Patuakhali as abnormal price hike of construction materials forced them to virtually suspend work.
On the other hand, many a contractors have not started project work fearing loss, making their implementation uncertain.
There is virtually no bidding for any government development project, official sources said.
Assistant engineer Md. Jahangir Alam of Patuakhali Education and Engineering Department (EED) said contractors of about 20 under-construction buildings of different government and non-government schools and colleges in different upazilas suspended their work as prices rod and other construction materials are more than double the government cost fixed earlier. EED has at least 60 ongoing projects in Patuakhali and Barguna districts.
“Four contractors have already withdrawn their contract deeds and we have cancelled the deeds after forfeiting their security deposit”, the assistant engineer told this correspondent.
“We received only 28 tenders in 15 group works on Monday, the last day for dropping tenders. Earlier, at least 10 tenders were dropped by contractors for one work”, Jahangir said.
A good number of contractors are yet to start new work due to sudden price hike of rod, he added.
Abu Hanif, assistant engineer of Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), said many contractors are refusing to complete their work on schedule and many ongoing projects have become uncertain.
Contractors are not showing interest in new work while they competed earlier.
There was no tender for a Tk one crore road carpeting work in group no. 66 under LGED. Same is the situation with another work involving over Tk one crore in group no 10, Hanif said. Contractors do not drop tender due to high price of construction materials, he added.
“We are going for re-tentering”, he added.
Nazma Akhter, a contractor of LGED, said, “I have received a road repair work of Tk 49.53 lakh. I could not start the work due to abnormal price hike of rod, bricks and bitumen.
“I submitted an application to the authorities to cancel my work order. LGED cancelled my work order and forfeited my security money of Tk 1.25 lakh”, she said. “Like me many other contractors felt work”.
Sources at both EED and LGED offices said contractors stopped work as price of per kg rod rose from Tk 42 to Tk 77 in market in last few weeks.
EED office sources said government price of per ton rod including value added tax (VAT), road binding charge, carrying and other expenses was fixed at Tk 52,000 but it now costs Tk 80,000 including VAT and other expenses.
Academic activities are greatly hampered in 20 government and non-government institutions in different upazilas as contractors left those undone due to high price of rod, sources at EED office said.
If construction of the 20 institutions can not be completed before the upcoming monsoon, the work will be delayer for over a year, they said.
Shafiqur Rahman, a merchant of constructions materials at Natun Bazzar in Patuakhali town said, par ton rod is now being sold Tk 80,000 which was only Tk 35,000 just two months ago. One thousand brick are sold at Tk 4,800 which was Tk 3,000 two months back and per barrel bitumen is selling at Tk 7, 500 against Tk 6,000.
When contacted, some of the contractors said they have nothing to do as abnormal price hike of construction materials has pushed the cost up but the budget remains the same.
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