The government has initiated negotiations with the Chinese firm on various financial and technical aspects for signing the final deal on construction of the Tk 121.33 billion Padma Multipurpose Bridge (PMB).
The Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) sits today (Monday) with top executives of the China Major Bridge Engineering Co Ltd (CMBEC), offer of which was accepted by the government on Thursday.
Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) members, led by Professor Jamilur Reza Chowdhury and the project's foreign design consultant will attend the meeting.
"We are going to discuss about the financial and technical nitty-gritty of the project. The discussions will focus on reaching a consensus on various issues relating to payment arrangements for the works," said a senior BBA official.
Preferring not to be named, he said before giving the final work order, some core issues are needed to be settled during the pre-contract negotiation. Â
The CMBEC won the country's largest infrastructure work to construct 6.15 kilometre bridge over the Padma river at a cost of Tk 121.33 billion (US $ 1.5 billion) which is 12.62 per cent less than the revised estimated cost of the Padma Bridge construction.
The cabinet committee on government purchase gave on Thursday its nod to the offer of the Chinese company which was the lone one submitted among the three technically responsive companies.
Officials said the technical evaluation committee of the BBA recommended the Chinese firm's offer which is substantially responsive to a number of issues that need to be finalised with the bidder as part of pre-contract negotiation.
They said there would not be any scope for change of the financial offer during the negotiation.
The BBA's foreign consultant evaluated the financial proposal after the Chinese company submitted it, being the lone bidder on April 24.
Although Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was expected to give the final approval to the Chinese company before leaving for Japan, it will now be done after the negotiation and after the end of the PM's tour.
The Padma Multipurpose Bridge (PMB) project for the country's largest and state-of-the-art bridge having four-lane road on the top and modern rail line below has already been delayed by three years.
The government had to accept the lone financial proposal of the Chinese company on ground of avoiding further delay of the project, officials said.
The Chinese firm submitted the financial proposal offering Tk 29.61 billion more than the project's initial cost for the bridge construction estimated in 2010. The first estimated cost for the two-tier bridge was Tk 91.72 billion which was revised to Tk 138.86 billion in 2013 mainly based on US dollar rate.
The firm is likely to get 26 per cent of the work cost in local currency and the rest in foreign currency.
Earlier, the BBA invited CMBEC, Daelim - L&T joint venture and Samsung C&T Corp, to submit respective financial offers in April after they were found responsive technically
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