Tender for Padma Bridge approach road due today
FE Report | Monday, 18 April 2011
FE Report
The first tender of the 2.9 billion dollars Padma multi purpose bridge project will be invited today (Monday) for constructing the bridge's 10.5 kilometre approach road at Jajira in Shariatpur. Communication ministry officials said six joint venture companies from Muslim-majority nations have been short-listed to compete for the $140 million road work. They said the tender is the first of a series of bids the government is set to invite in the next few months to kick start the work of the country's costliest infrastructure project. The first bidding follows the selection of the six firms by the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB), the financier of the approach road work. "We have already notified the selected firms to collect the tender documents and submit them within 60 days," Padma Bridge project director Rafiqul Islam told the FE. He said the construction of the approach road will begin within the next four months as it will take one more month to evaluate the bidding proposals of the six short-listed firms. The short-listed firms are: Orascom-Hindustan Construction Company, a joint venture of Egypt and India, Kolin-Insaat AS of Turkey, Delma-Larsen and Tourbro of UAE and India, MTD Construction SDM BHD of Malaysia, Shahidullah Khan and Brothers of Pakistan and Abdul Monem Ltd-HCM of Malaysia and Bangladesh. The pre-qualification of the contractors for the bridge's main approach road took place in February. The short-listing evaluation report for the 10.5 km approach road was sent to the IDB on March 24. Officials said the BBA has also completed the evaluation of the prequalification of contractors for the main bridge in January and river training in March and sent those to the World Bank. The Washington-based development bank is the key donor of the project, lending more than 40 per cent of the fund. It is also the coordinating agency of the multi-donor project. The officials said of the approach road at Jajira will be the biggest of its kind in the country, larger than the combined approach roads of the Pakshi and Rupsha bridges.
The first tender of the 2.9 billion dollars Padma multi purpose bridge project will be invited today (Monday) for constructing the bridge's 10.5 kilometre approach road at Jajira in Shariatpur. Communication ministry officials said six joint venture companies from Muslim-majority nations have been short-listed to compete for the $140 million road work. They said the tender is the first of a series of bids the government is set to invite in the next few months to kick start the work of the country's costliest infrastructure project. The first bidding follows the selection of the six firms by the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB), the financier of the approach road work. "We have already notified the selected firms to collect the tender documents and submit them within 60 days," Padma Bridge project director Rafiqul Islam told the FE. He said the construction of the approach road will begin within the next four months as it will take one more month to evaluate the bidding proposals of the six short-listed firms. The short-listed firms are: Orascom-Hindustan Construction Company, a joint venture of Egypt and India, Kolin-Insaat AS of Turkey, Delma-Larsen and Tourbro of UAE and India, MTD Construction SDM BHD of Malaysia, Shahidullah Khan and Brothers of Pakistan and Abdul Monem Ltd-HCM of Malaysia and Bangladesh. The pre-qualification of the contractors for the bridge's main approach road took place in February. The short-listing evaluation report for the 10.5 km approach road was sent to the IDB on March 24. Officials said the BBA has also completed the evaluation of the prequalification of contractors for the main bridge in January and river training in March and sent those to the World Bank. The Washington-based development bank is the key donor of the project, lending more than 40 per cent of the fund. It is also the coordinating agency of the multi-donor project. The officials said of the approach road at Jajira will be the biggest of its kind in the country, larger than the combined approach roads of the Pakshi and Rupsha bridges.