Elevated Expressway: Appellate Division issues status quo on share transfer
The construction work of the elevated expressway has been almost at a standstill since
The Appellate Division today (30 May) imposed a status quo on the High Court rule which cleared the way for transferring Italian-Thai Development Public Company Limited (ITD)'s shares in Dhaka Elevated Expressway to China's Sinohydro Corporation.
The full appellate bench of eight judges, headed by Chief Justice Obaidul Hasan, passed the order today (30 May), confirmed court sources.
The share transfer will remain halted until the first hearing on the debt-repayment dispute between the companies through arbitration in Singapore, said the Appellate Division.
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Senior lawyer AM Amin Uddin, Sheikh Mohammad Morsed, and Barrister Imtiaz Farooq represented the Italian-Thai company in court. Barrister Mohammad Mehedi Hasan Chowdhury and Barrister Mostafizur Rahman Khan represented the Chinese company.
Previously, on 16 May, the Appellate Division issued a two-week status quo on the share transfer after hearing an appeal of the Italian-Thai Development.
The Dhaka Elevated Expressway project is being implemented by the Thailand-based company Italian-Thai, China's Shandong International and Sinohydro Corporation, with the Bangladesh Bridge Authority as the project's executive body.
The shares of three companies in the expressway is 51%, 34%, and 15%, respectively.
The government's priority project was supposed to be completed this year. However, a conflict between the contractors has slowed down the construction work.
Italian-Thai operates the expressway as it has the largest share in it. Sinohydro demanded their shares after the Thai company could not pay the installments of the bank loans.
The conflicts went to court in Bangladesh amid an ongoing arbitration in Singapore.
In view of the Italian-Thai company's application, the court issued a stay order on the transfer of the shares as demanded by Sinohydro.
Due to the problems, two Chinese banks stopped providing loans for the project, bringing the project work almost to a halt.
