Metro rail: Also a show of local engineering might

Highlights

• Local firms account for all rods and cement used in the project
• Local contractor in direct construction for the first time in mega-project
• Local paint-maker provides all the painting solutions

Dhaka Metro Rail put the country's heavy industries in a capacity test and the local ventures passed it with flying colours – proving that Bangladesh also can produce international-level construction material and services.

Local companies supplied around 1,80,000 tonnes of steel and 3.50 lakh tonnes of cement for the construction of the main structure of the rapid transportation project. Local colour-maker Berger Paints Bangladesh Ltd came up with the painting solutions both for industrial and decorative segments. Besides, Bangladeshi industrial conglomerate Abdul Monem Limited teamed up with its foreign counterparts to be the main local contractor of a mega-project for the first time in Bangladesh.

According to project officials, local construction support to Dhaka Metro Rail ranging from supplying bricks to providing sand, supervision of the civil work to beautification, and other infrastructure work helped cut the project costs. They also note such experiences and engineering skills will pave the way for large-scale constructions in future.

"We primarily assumed that all the components for the heavy metro rail civil work will have to be imported. But the local companies proved us wrong, which eventually prevented the project costs from edging up," MAN Siddique, managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) – the owner and operator of the mass rapid transit system, told The Business Standard.

He said the Italian Thai Development Public Company – the foreign construction firm of the work – assessed the locally produced construction material before beginning the project.

"As they were happy with the quality, there was no need for importing the raw material," MAN Siddique said.

BSRM, AKS, KSRM supplied the rod

The metro rail construction required consistent and high-quality rods produced in state-of-the-art facilities. Since the local steel manufacturers already had such latest technologies, metro rail construction did not have to go for any rod import.

Of the total 1.79 lakh tonne requirement, country's leading rod-maker BSRM supplied 1.14 lakh tonnes of rods alone, including the popular Extreme 500W. Like this project in the capital, the rod-maker topped the local steel supply for Padma Bridge construction.

"BSRM supplied nearly 65% of the steel rods required for the metro rail project. We were chosen thanks to our quality, capacity and services," Tapan Sengupta, deputy managing director of BSRM, told TBS.

He commented that foreign construction firms did not have any complaints over the quality of rods supplied by BSRM and its market peers.

Abul Khair Steel Mills (AKS), the country's second largest rod-maker, supplied 45,000 tonnes of rods to the mega-project. The AKS consignment included the company's key manufacturing technology TMT – a road-making process that involves heating and cooling to develop better properties in steel by refining its microstructure.

Another local manufacturer KSRM supplied more than 20,000 tonnes of "500-W High Power" rods to the metro project, according to the rod-maker's Senior General Manager MD Jashim Uddin.

He said KSRM has been producing 500-W grade rods for several ongoing mega-projects, as Padma Bridge had sourced such steel items from the company.

Bashundhara cement in all civil works

Cement was one of the key ingredients for metro rail depots, base, pillars and spans construction. Though the granite and stone of the main railway line came from Europe, all the concrete blocks for the civil work required cement. And local cement-maker Bashundhara smoothly provided the construction input to the mega-project.

According to the Mass Transit Company, the so-far civil work, stretching from Uttara to Motijheel, required 3.48 lakh tonnes of cement – which was supplied by Bashundhara Cement alone.

Khandker Kingshuk Hossain, chief marketing officer of Bashundhara Cement, said they were able to achieve the rare feat thanks to Bashundhara's consistent quality, high finesse and lower alkali content in the finished product.

He mentioned that Bashundhara previously supplied more than 80% of the cement used in Padma Bridge.

Premier Cement Mills PLC and Shah Cement were the suppliers for some other project components, like station and residential buildings for project officials and workers.

A record by Abdul Monem

Bangladesh had to appoint foreign firms in all its major infrastructural projects such as the Jamuna or Padma Bridge. Due to lack of capacity and experience, local companies could not even participate in the bidding for such gigantic construction activities.

But Bangladeshi industrial conglomerate Abdul Monem qualified as the main local contractor for metro rail work, which is the first for a local company to achieve such a feat, thanks to Abdul Monem's subcontracting experience in the Padma Bridge. As the main contractor, the local firm did civil work worth Tk1,500 crore in the Agargaon-Karwan Bazar stretch of the transport project.

Of the total 20km of civil work of Dhaka Metro Rail, TEKKEN-Abdul Monem-ABENKO Joint venture did 3km.

Mahmud Hossen, deputy authorised representative of TEKKEN-Abdul Monem-ABENKO joint venture, said Abdul Monem as a subcontractor to the Padma Bridge project first gained a mega-project experience. In continuation to that, the company got metro work by contesting an international bidding.

"The experiences in those two projects now make us an international constructor. Over the past couple of years, we have managed to organise a large number of skilled engineers and workers," he added.

According to Mahmud Hossen, around 80% of 500 construction staff of the local company are Bangladeshi citizens. The company initially had foreigners in those posts, but locals have replaced them gradually.

Berger Paints Bangladesh, the only company that got the work order directly from the contractor, supervised the paint application and provided other technical support to the metro rail project.

Rupali Haque Chowdhury, managing director of Berger Paints Bangladesh Limited, said Berger is extremely proud to be able to participate in the construction process of a project of such magnitude.