The Crime Desk: Expenditure related to the establishment of telecommunications in the Rooppur nuclear power plant is increasing by 91.05 percent. Along with that, the term is increasing by more than two years. The reason for this is that the contract could not be awarded as the conditions of the Russian consulting firm could not be met. As a result, a long time has passed. In addition, the cost of equipment has increased due to the increase in the dollar. There is also the inclusion of new jobs.
Due to these reasons, almost zero progress is being made in the ‘Establishment of External Telecommunication Network for Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant’ project, despite the deadline. Keeping these issues in mind, the first amendment proposal of the project has been sent to the Planning Commission. A PEC (Project Evaluation Committee) meeting was held on July 31. This information is known from the minutes of the meeting issued on August 21.
Several officers of the Planning Commission, who participated in the PEC meeting, told the media that, in view of the reality, recommendations have been made to reduce the expenditure of various organs. Besides, the development project proposal (RDPP) has been sent back to the concerned ministry for revision with recommendations on various other issues. The project is being implemented by Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) under the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Head of Socio-Economic Infrastructure Department of Planning Commission (Additional Secretary) at the PEC meeting. Abdur Rauf presented the details of the project. He said that the original approved expenditure for the implementation of the project was Tk 378 crore (84 lakh). But in the first amendment proposal, an increase of 344 crore 94 lakh taka has been proposed to spend 723 crore 78 lakh taka. In this case, the cost is increasing by 91.0 percent. However, till March 4 crore, 82 lakh has been spent under it. As a result, financial and real progress stands at zero decimal percent. He further informed me that the duration of the project was from April 2022 to March 2024. But due to lack of progress at this time, it is now proposed to extend the period till June 2026 due to various reasons.
Sources in the PEC meeting said that the reason for revising the project was the dependence on Russian consulting firms for finalizing the network design. As a result, various conditions were imposed on the payment of consultant fees by the said organization, which could not be nurtured. In this situation, even after all the processes related to the purchase are completed, a long time passes due to not being able to conclude the contract. Besides, the cost demanded for leasing optical fiber on an IRI basis from the three NTTN operators was much higher than the cost mentioned in the sanctioned DPP.
Meanwhile, when the project was taken up, the foreign currency exchange rate was 84 taka 80 paise to one dollar, which was estimated to be spent on foreign machinery. But currently the price of the dollar has increased to 117 taka 40 paisa. In this case, every dollar is increasing by 32 taka 60 paisa. Due to this, the price of machinery has increased. It is also said that there has been a change in the number of telecom equipment and security equipment due to demand, technical, and service reasons, although not in the original DPP. As the issue of security is of utmost importance, the amendment proposal proposes to install new security equipment at all layers. Besides, more new activities have been added to the project.
Some of the notable recommendations made in the PEC meeting are that the purchase plan should specify the name of the appropriate procurement sanctioning authority as per the Financial Empowerment Rules and the specific quantity and specific procurement method of the procurement package as per PPR-2008. Besides, appropriate evidence of the expenditure incurred under the project so far, MTBF (Medium Term Budget Framework) certification, and financing plan should be attached to the RDPP. In addition to the sectors in which expenditure reduction has been recommended, they must be implemented.
