Govt may call fresh tender for Dhaka-Ctg elevated highway
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
Munima Sultana
The government is considering four options to invite bidders for the 4.3 billion-dollar second highway connecting Dhaka with Chittagong as none of the two international firms was short-listed, officials said Sunday.
An Indian firm and a US-China joint venture lined up to construct the proposed access control/elevated highway between Dhaka and Chittagong after the bidding closed on April 15. None of them was found to be qualified.
Officials said Roads and Highways Department (RHD), executing agency of the project, has chalked out four options based on the queries made by other interested parties who finally did not show up in the bidding and has decided to invite fresh tender for the highway-related project.
They said at the time of the first bidding, the RHD could not meet many of the queries mainly concerning the entities responsible for land acquisition due visibly to lack of concrete guidelines about the public-private partnership (PPP) project. It resulted in scant response from investors.
"We have already got a PPP policy and a proposed budget for it. We can now plan more accurately this important project than before, said Project Director Mohammad Mafizul Islam.
He said the proposal will be placed to the higher authority within two days, which is expected to get a shape next week after getting approval from the PPP cell. He said the RHD has plan to call fresh tenders for the dedicated highway for the country's important economic corridor by July 15.
"We expect to lit the light of the access control highway again and complete the fresh tender procedure within next 15 days," he told the FE.
RHD held a meeting with Roads and Railway Division Secretary Mozammel Hossain Sunday and prepared the four options based on concessionary period either without any government contribution in land acquisition or some contribution with a different time frame to pay the investors the money back.
The government opened pre-qualification tender on January 22 for the dedicated express highway. Soma Enterprise of India and Global Enterprise, a joint venture of Chinese and American constructors, made primary bidding for it. The government's another project -- the elevated highway - was, however, shelved due to lack of any response from interested investors due to huge cost involvement.
The government is considering four options to invite bidders for the 4.3 billion-dollar second highway connecting Dhaka with Chittagong as none of the two international firms was short-listed, officials said Sunday.
An Indian firm and a US-China joint venture lined up to construct the proposed access control/elevated highway between Dhaka and Chittagong after the bidding closed on April 15. None of them was found to be qualified.
Officials said Roads and Highways Department (RHD), executing agency of the project, has chalked out four options based on the queries made by other interested parties who finally did not show up in the bidding and has decided to invite fresh tender for the highway-related project.
They said at the time of the first bidding, the RHD could not meet many of the queries mainly concerning the entities responsible for land acquisition due visibly to lack of concrete guidelines about the public-private partnership (PPP) project. It resulted in scant response from investors.
"We have already got a PPP policy and a proposed budget for it. We can now plan more accurately this important project than before, said Project Director Mohammad Mafizul Islam.
He said the proposal will be placed to the higher authority within two days, which is expected to get a shape next week after getting approval from the PPP cell. He said the RHD has plan to call fresh tenders for the dedicated highway for the country's important economic corridor by July 15.
"We expect to lit the light of the access control highway again and complete the fresh tender procedure within next 15 days," he told the FE.
RHD held a meeting with Roads and Railway Division Secretary Mozammel Hossain Sunday and prepared the four options based on concessionary period either without any government contribution in land acquisition or some contribution with a different time frame to pay the investors the money back.
The government opened pre-qualification tender on January 22 for the dedicated express highway. Soma Enterprise of India and Global Enterprise, a joint venture of Chinese and American constructors, made primary bidding for it. The government's another project -- the elevated highway - was, however, shelved due to lack of any response from interested investors due to huge cost involvement.