Financial offer of Chinese co for building PMB accepted

Only a Chinese company has finally submitted financial proposal for the country's costly Padma Multipurpose Bridge (PMB) construction work, asking for Tk 29.61 billion more than the project's estimated cost for the bridge construction.

The Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) accepted the financial offer of the China Major Bridge Engineering Co Ltd (CMBE) on the last day of submission on Thursday amid pleas from the two other selected bidders to extend the bid submission time for several weeks.

Sources said the lone Chinese company submitted its financial offer quoting Tk 121.33 billion against the estimated cost of Tk 91.72 billion.

They said the two other firms sought the extension of time for at least 10 weeks.

The BBA earlier invited the two other international firms, Daelim - L&T joint venture and Samsung C&T Corp, to submit their financial offers as the technical evaluation committee (TEC) found their technical offers responsive last month.

Briefing journalists after the deadline for the submission closed at 3pm, Communication Minister Obaidul Quader said the government will give the award for the construction of the Padma Bridge by June completing the evaluation of the financial offer.

He said the foreign consultant of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project will review the financial offer to be evaluated later by the TEC.

When asked about absence of competitiveness in the bidding due to participation of only one company, the minister said the authority has so far extended the technical proposal submission time four times and for the financial proposal one time on request from the two firms.

He said the decision not to extend the time any more was taken after consultation with the project's design consultant and the TEC.

"We are committed to the people to start the project by June. The China Major Bridge Company submitted the financial offer which will now be evaluated by the AECOM Maunsel to assess errors, mistakes and lapses in the proposal according to rules and regulations," the minister said. He said the TEC will evaluate whether everything has been done as per the rules.

Officials said Samsung of South Korea and Daelim of India placed the demand for extension on April 19 and 20 seeking 10 weeks and 11 weeks of time for the submission.

When queried about the offer quoted is beyond the project's estimated cost for the bridge construction, a source said, the earlier estimation for the 6.15 kilometre bridge was done at per dollar rate of Tk 60. The project office considers the increase of 15 per cent from the estimated cost acceptable when the dollar rate is Tk 80.

While talking to different officials and experts, this correspondent, however, got mixed reactions on the acceptability of the financial offer from the perspective of  competitiveness.

A BBA official said as per the international tender rules, evaluation must be done even if one company participates.

However, sources said possibility of the Chinese company getting the Padma Bridge project was apparent since the three short-listed companies participated in the bidding.

Though the two firms sought extension of time for technical and financial offers, the Chinese company never made any request for it.

While briefing journalists after a meeting with the Chinese Ambassador in his office a few months back, the Communication Minister also said he requested the Ambassador to ensure the Chinese company does the Padma bridge work properly if they get the work.

The meeting with the minister was held over the government facing problems with the two Chinese firms which were working on the Dhaka-Chittagong and Dhaka-Mymensigh highway four-lane projects.

More than 14 projects of the country remain in the pipeline for Chinese support, sources said.

In the website of the China Major Bridge Engineering, it is found that the company has constructed many important bridges in China and other parts of the world including East Sea Bridge.