The cabinet committee on government purchase approved on Monday a proposal for awarding construction supervision work of the Padma Bridge Project to a South Korean joint venture company.
The Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) earlier sent the proposal to the cabinet committee after its technical evaluation committee recommended the Korean Expressway Corporation (KEC) to supervise construction work of the main bridge and river training work.
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed presided over the meeting as the Finance Minister is now on official tour in the United States.
Maksudur Rahman Patwari, a joint secretary of the Cabinet Division, while briefing reporters after the cabinet committee meeting said the Korea Expressway Corporation was awarded the work for its lowest offer of Tk 3.83 billion to work as construction supervision consultant (CSC).
With this selection, officials said, major tender process of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project has been completed. It also ended the stalemate, created over its selection after the World Bank (WB) brought allegation of corruption conspiracy in the process of selecting the Canadian company - SNC Lavalin - as the CSC in September 2011.
Though the CSC appointment was supposed to be made first among all tenders, they said, its completion at the end of all processes will now accelerate the project's construction work in full swing as the authority has already selected two Chinese companies for the two important components of the project.
"We are expecting to give the work order to the Korean company soon after getting the Prime Minister's approval," said Bridge Division Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam.
Though mobilisation has already started, he said, level construction of the main bridge and river training works will start in a full-fledged manner after the work order.
Following the WB related complication, the BBA called the fresh expression of interest (EoI) for the CSC on June 24, 2013 cancelling its earlier selection of five companies as pre-qualified.
It divided the work into two parts and received response from 11 new foreign companies after the EoI closed on July 31. The BBA finally short-listed five companies from Korea, India, France and the United States. Of them, four companies submitted the request for proposal (RFP).
The officials said the KEC has been recommended for the CSC as lead partner.
Other joint ventures are Pyunghwa Engineering Consultants Ltd and Korea Engineering Consultants Corporation of Korea, and ACE Consultant Ltd of Bangladesh. DevConsultants Ltd Bangladesh will also be involved with the supervision as sub-consultant.
The BBA has already selected the China Major Bridge Company to work for the 6.15 kilometre bridge construction work and the Sinohydro Corporation for over 20 km river training work.
The Bangladesh Army engineering corps, with the help of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), has been working as CSC for the Padma bridge's three other component works - two approach road construction works and service area development - against its proposal of over Tk 2.0 billion.
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