The cabinet committee on purchase approved Monday six projects including appointment of a contractor for supplying 0.6 million machine-readable passports (MRP) to Bangladeshis working in Malaysia.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith presided over the first purchase committee meeting of the new government.
Cabinet Division Additional Secretary Nurul Karim said the government decided to issue the MRPs to Bangladeshis working in Malaysia through outsourcing or private companies.
Bangladeshi firm 'Data Edge I People Consortium' won the bid. The company will get US$ 18 for issuing each passport with total cost at Tk 842 million. The company will complete and distribute the MRPs within next 18 months.
The company will set up eight booths in different cities of Malaysia.
According to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), Bangladesh has to issue MRPs to all non-resident Bangladeshis by March 2015.
Besides, the cabinet committee okayed procurement of four container-carrying ocean-going vessels for both Chittagong and Mongla ports by the BIWTC under the project titled 'Procurement of 108 TEUs Self Multipurpose Inland Container Ships'. Each ship would cost Tk 378 million and cost of the four ships will total Tk 1.51 billion.
Besides, the cabinet committee on purchase approved appointment of the Kunhua Engineering and Consultant Company Limited, a joint venture of South Korea, India and Bangladesh as consultant for turning Joydebpur-Chandra-Tangail road into four lanes. The design and consultancy for the project would cost Tk 1.048 billion.
The road will be upgraded under the South Asia Sub-regional Economic Cooperation project. Under the project, 70 kilometres of road, five flyovers, 27 bridges and 60 culverts would be constructed.
The committee also approved recruitment of five operators for three years for handling goods at general cargo berth at the Chittagong Port.
The handling would cost Tk 899 million.
Fazle Sons Limited, Bashir Limited, A & J Traders, Everest Enterprise, and M H Chowdhury got the work to handle goods at jetties no. 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 respectively.
The committee also approved procurement of seven power transformers worth Tk 51.6 million and procurement of 50,000 tonne wheat. TS Transformer and Ms Phoenix Commodities Limited will procure the transformer and wheat respectively.
