The railway authorities have resumed negotiations with the Chinese company selected for the expansion of the Akhaura-Sylhet rail line, after the process was halted for a year over contract price.

The railways ministry on June 12 formed a technical committee to assist the negotiation committee led by its Secretary Humayun Kabir.

Meanwhile, the Chinese company has submitted a fresh proposal regarding the project cost two weeks ago, Bangladesh Railway sources said.

All the members of the seven-member technical committee have already been selected after getting a nomination each from Buet and the Roads and Highways Department.

The five other members, including the chief of the committee, are from the ministry and the BR.

Speaking to this correspondent yesterday, a member of the committee, preferring anonymity, said, "We will hold a meeting to scrutinise the new proposal given by the Chinese company and will give our recommendations to the ministry.

"However, we may have to hold more than one meeting to finalise our opinion."

The development came three months after Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming wrote to the finance minister to revive negotiations with the company.

He also suggested signing a commercial deal for quick commencement of the Tk 16,104.45-crore project, to be implemented with a loan from China.

The ambassador had sent the letter in April this year after the railways ministry in October last year wrote to the Economic Relations Division (ERD), asking it to search for alternative funding for the project, following the directives of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The step was taken as the contractor declined to work after the project cost was revised.

Two weeks after Li Jiming's letter, the ERD on April 26 also wrote to the rail ministry, warning it that a "unilateral" decision to cancel China's funding for the project may deteriorate bilateral relations between the two countries.

The move to find an alternative financier for the project, for converting the existing Akhaura-Sylhet metre-gauge (MG) railroad into a dual-gauge (DG) one, may also create problems when trying to undertake future projects with Chinese funds, it said.

The ERD is a division under finance ministry that deals with foreign-funding related issues on behalf of the government.

In this situation, the negotiation committee at a meeting on May 25 decided to form the technical committee to provide recommendations, sources said.

The Akhaura-Sylhet project was among those for which Dhaka and Beijing signed a memorandum of understanding -- during Chinese President Xi Jinping's Dhaka visit in October 2016 -- to implement with Chinese assistance.

The Ecnec approved the project in April 2019 in a bid to improve the rail link between the capital and Sylhet.

China was supposed to finance 66.16 percent of the total project cost as loan, and the China Railway Construction Bridge Engineering Bureau Group Co Ltd was appointed as the contractor to implement the project.

However, the Prime Minister's Office in October 2020 had formed the negotiation committee to review the contract prices of three projects involving China.

The two other projects are Joydebpur-Ishwardi Double Line and Joydebpur-Mymensingh-Jamalpur DG Conversion.

The Ecnec approved the Tk 14,250.61-crore Joydebpur-Ishwardi Double Line project in November 2018 to make the section a DG double line. The third project has not been approved.

In November 2020, the PMO directed BR to slash the cost of Akhaura-Sylhet project by Tk 3,354.31 crore -- 20.8 percent of the total outlay.

It also gave directions to lower costs of the two other projects. But the contractors of all three projects refused to work with the reduced budget, BR documents show.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government early last year informed Bangladesh that it would not fund the Joydebpur-Ishwardi project for a "lack of in-depth preliminary work and insufficient feasibility study".

China declined to review the decision following Bangladesh's request.

In this situation, the railways ministry in October last year wrote to the ERD, asking it to search for alternative funding for Akhaura-Sylhet and Joydebpur-Ishwardi projects.

The Daily Star could not reach Railways Secretary Humayun Kabir and BR's Director General Dhirendra Nath Mazumder over phone for comments.