MOGHBAZAR-MOUCHAK FLYOVER CONSTRUCTION

Callous disregard for public safety during the construction of Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover once again led to disruption of power supply to a vast area of Dhaka city after a 132 kV underground power transmission cable near Mouchak traffic signal during the drilling of a borehole, officials said. The construction workers at about 10:00am Tuesday cut off the transmission line putting vast areas under Kakrail, Shegunbagicha, Ramna, Azimpur, Dhaka University campus, Karwan Bazaar and Sher-e-Bangla Nagar substations out of power supply for hours, Dhaka Power Distribution Company director Md Ramiz Uddin Sarkar told New Age. Power cuts for hours together put a chain effect in many commercial and residential areas of the city as it also disrupted the operation of water pumps. Backup power supply arrangements — generators and instant power supply — exhausted in many high-rise office and residential buildings from Motijheel to Karwan Bazaar and Azimpur to Dhanmondi causing immense sufferings to people. A release issued by DPDC on Tuesday evening said that the power distribution company was supplying power to the areas through alternative lines by load management which caused frequent power outages in the affected areas.

DPDC officials said that it was planning to file a case against Toma Construction, the contractor for the flyover project, for its utter negligence which had demeaned the DPDC’s reputation causing it to incur financial losses. Ramiz Uddin said that DPDC had resumed power supply to the Bangladesh Secretariat, hospitals and other important establishments through an alternative line immediately after identifying the source of the trouble. He, however, said that DPDC had restored power supply to about 80 per cent of the affected areas by Tuesday afternoon. Asked, he said that Toma Construction and Co Ltd caused the damage to the key power transmission line for Dhaka city although DPDC had provided the company with the drawing of the transmission line. Toma’s Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover project coordinator Saidur Rahman Shelly, however, claimed that the drawing of the line provided by DPDC hardly matched the actual position of the underground cable which, he said, led to the accident. It would take two to three days to repair the damaged transmission line as the job would require consultation services from the Chinese firm, which had laid the underground transmission line, Ramiz said adding that the consultant was expected to arrive in Dhaka today. Toma Construction which has already earned notoriety for its negligence in safety measures during construction work – both on surface and underground – had cut off underground power transmission line in 2014 causing sufferings to the people. DPDC had claimed Tk 60 crore in damages from the construction firm for the 2014 incident but Toma had yet to pay the penalty to the power distribution company, DPDC officials said. Saidur, however, claimed that his company had already paid penalty to DPDC on several occasions. On Saturday, two day labourers were killed in front of the Moghbazar petrol pump, where there were no barriers or signs to caution road users, when a bus lost control and ploughed into the workers. Local government and engineering department, immediately after the beginning of the flyover construction in February 2013, suspended works for six months for faulty design, said officials. The 8.25-kilometre long flyover is expected to ease traffic between the capital’s north and south ends and the project is scheduled for completion by December 2016.

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