Final bid submission time extended again

Bidders short-listed for the Padma main bridge and river training works are buying time for submitting their final bids, leading to further delay in beginning the works on two main components of the project.
The Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA), the executing agency of the US$3.00 billion Padma multipurpose bridge (PMB) project, has extended the timeframe for submission of the bid documents for the main bridge construction for the second time and river training works for the first time following requests from the short-listed bidders.
Officials said bid submission time for the $1.33 billion bridge construction work has been extended by a month while that of the $778 million training work by 40 days.
 "Though request for time extension varies from two to four months by different bidders, the latest extension was done considering the extent of work to prepare respective documents," said Project Director Md Shafiqul Islam.
The tender for the road-cum-rail bridge construction work has been extended to December 3 from November 4. The first extension was for two months.
The date for submission of tender for river training work was shifted from November 25 to January 6.
The officials said the dates for the two tenders have been extended on request from the pre-qualified firms which have so far collected the tender documents.
Three among five pre-qualified firms collected the tender documents for the main bridge construction work while five among six short-listed firms bought documents for the river training work.
When asked whether the time for both the tenders will be further extended, the PD dismissed such a possibility. "The process of the tender cannot be endless," he added.
However, sources said the authority has extended the tender submission date for the main bridge construction work to give time to one pre-qualified firm to arrange new partner.
Partnership of the Daelim-Bam VCI joint venture of Korea was not effective when the tender for the main bridge construction work was opened two years after the prequalification process was completed.
Sources said the Daelim-Bam has formed a new joint venture with Larsen and Tarbo of India and submitted fresh company documents to the BBA after buying the tender document.
They said the Padma bridge project consultant and evaluation committee accepted the new arrangement recently.
Sources said time for river training work was given to complete fresh study on the river. They said the study has been necessary for the tender document to submit proposals as river erosion has taken a serious turn in the recent times.
The BBA opened the construction work of the main bridge on June 25 and the river training work on September 22.
Of the pre-qualified companies, Padma RTC Joint Venture of the Netherlands and Belgium, Jan De Nul NV of Belgium, Penta Ocean Construction of Japan, Hyundai Engineering and Construction of South Korea and Sino Hydro Corporation of China bought the tender documents.
However, of them, first three firms were found eligible and short-listed. The rest two were also short-listed but with certain conditions.
The Pad joint venture of Denmark and the US is yet to buy tender documents.
The BBA short-listed Samsung C and T Corporation, Daelim-Bam-VCI joint venture of Korea, China Major Bridge Engineering Company and Vinci-HCC of India and France in 2011,
Of them, China Major Bridge Engineering Co Ltd, Daelim-Bam-VCI and Samsung C&T Corporation of South Korea bought bid documents.