BBA set to invite financial proposals this week

The Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) is now set to seek financial proposals from all the three firms whose technical proposals for construction of the main Padma Bridge have been found responsive, officials said Sunday.
"As technical proposals of all the pre-qualified bidders who participated in technical bidding have been found responsive, they will be invited for submitting financial proposals this week," said a senior BBA official.
He said the project's foreign design consultants have already completed evaluation of the technical proposals now under review by the Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC).
Officials said on receipt of the TEC's comment on the consultants' evaluation and following the communication minister's approval, the date for invitation of financial proposals would be announced.
The BBA, the executing agency of the US 2.9 billion Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project, received the technical proposals from three of four pre-qualified bidders on January 6 last. They are China Major Bridge Engineering Co Ltd, Daelim L&T JV, and the Samsung C&T Corp. The Vinci-HCC JV did not participate in the technical bidding.
The tender for the much-talked-about Padma Bridge was invited on June 25 last year. However, the bid submission date was deferred four times on requests from the bidders from China, South Korea and India. Finally January 6 was fixed as the last date.           
The officials said after receiving the technical proposals, the consultants were given three weeks for evaluation. The time, however, was extended to answer some queries.
The Auckland-based consultancy firm, AECOM-Maunsell, finally submitted the evaluation report on the technical proposal to the BBA on February 27 last, officials added.
The 6.15-kilometre bridge will have a four-lane road on its top and a railway line below.
The Padma Bridge project has five categories of work, of which, the main bridge construction and the river training work are the most expensive and technical ones. The cost for construction of the bridge is estimated at $ 1.33 billion and for the river training work $ 778 million. The estimation was made in 2010.
Meanwhile, the BBA extended the time to April 6 for submission of proposals by international consultants for supervising the main bridge construction and the river training work.
Officials said the time was extended on request from the participating six firms during the pre-bid meeting. The earlier submission date was March 18.