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Govt to computerise toll collection of major bridges from next year
FE Report
7/12/2004
The government will computerise the toll collection system of country's major bridges from the next year to get rid of mismanagement and corruption that are making the government lose billions of taka every year.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the Communications Ministry Sunday that was presided over by Minister Nazmul Huda.
The Communications Minister told the meeting that the introduction of computerised system in major bridges would stop all kinds of leakages and mismanagement in collecting tolls.
He also directed the officials concerned to take necessary measures to introduce the computerised system for bridges.
Communications Secretary Shafiqul Islam and Roads and Highways Department (RHD) Chief Engineer Sheikh Rabiul Islam attended the meeting.
The RHD was directed to conduct a survey to select major bridges, prepare package paper and invite international tender in this regard. It was also directed to follow the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) system in implementing the decision.
The decision to introduce the computerised system was taken a couple of months ago after the parliamentary standing committee on communications ministry blasted the ministry for negligence in introducing the modern system of toll collection.
The parliamentary standing committee led by Manjur Ahmed observed that corruption and mismanagement in absence of the computerised system were making the government lose billions of taka every year as tolls from the bridges throughout the country.
The committee noted that the authorities would be able to collect about Tk 10 billion (1000 crore) annually if there are no leakages in the toll collection process.
However, the government is earning less due to rampant corruption and mismanagement, the committee noted and suggested authorities concerned to pave the way for installing the computerised system at major bridges to stop financial misuse and corruption.
Sources said massive financial misuses are going on, centring the country's busiest Meghna-Doudkandi bridges.
They said Tk 2.50 million was earned from the Meghna-Doudkandi bridges and Tk 5.2 million to Tk 6.0 million from the Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge (JMB) daily.
But the volume of traffic using those bridges is much higher than the JMB, suggesting that the earning should be at least three times higher than the present toll collected from the Meghna-Daudkandi bridge, they added.
The authorities had earlier decided to computerise the Meghna-Daudkandi bridges toll collection system and also imported materials for the purpose.
But those materials were gathering dust due to negligence by the authorities concerned, sources said.
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