Bid deadline for KTM-Tarai Fast Track extended till June 21
KATHMANDU, MAY 23 -
The government has extended the date for submitting bids for the Fast Track project by a month. The deadline was postponed at the request of the Indian firms shortlisted to build the express highway which will link Kathmandu with the southern Tarai plains.
This is the second extension since February. The last date for submitting bids was Tuesday. Three Indian firms—Reliance Infrastructure, Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) and Larsen and Turbo (L&T) Infrastructure Development Projects—are in the race to get the contract for the 76-km Fast Track highway.
“The date has been extended up to June 21 after L&T asked for more time,” said Tulasi Prasad Sitaula, secretary of the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport. “We hope the firms will take the job seriously and come up with their proposals within one month to take the project forward.”
Last December, the government had issued requests for proposal (RFP) with a four-month time limit until April 21 to submit financial and technical proposals to build the road under the build, operate, own and transfer (BOOT) model. The RFP requires the bidding firms to carry out a detailed survey, investigation and detailed examination by visiting the site before submitting their bids.
The Indian firms had been asking for more time to complete a detailed engineering survey to prepare their proposals for the project. Officials of the Physical Infrastructure Ministry said that only L&T among the three short-listed firms was serious about the project. They said that Reliance was out of contact and IL&FS seemed to have lost interest considering its activites.
Based on the government provision to allow local financiers to invest up to 10 percent of the project cost, a local construction firm Evergreen Construction has partnered with IL&FS to build the Fast Track road. The express highway is estimated to cost more than Rs 80 billion. A local agent of one of the three Indian firms said that they had become “confused” after Nepal’s private sector started preparations to build a similar type of toll road, the Kathmandu-Kulekhani-Hetauda Highway.
On Tuesday, the government gave the go-ahead to Nepal Purbadhar Bikas Company (NPBC) to construct the 58 km-tunnel highway under the BOOT model. NPBC said that its project would not affect the Fast Track road as they would link different destinations.
The company’s vice-chairman Lal Krishna KC said that the two proposed highways were equally important to boost economic activities in the country, and that the government should concentrate more on highways to increase efficiency and effectiveness.
Meanwhile, the Physical Planning Ministry has been doing the final preparations to acquire land for the Fast Track road in Khokana, Lalitpur by publishing a public notice. Sitaula said that the government would soon issue a notice after determining how much land would be required for the project. Track opening for the expressway has been completed from Chalnakhel to Nijgadh.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
