Construction of Sundarijal water treatment plant
KATHMANDU, MAY 23 -
Even after the third extension of deadline, the government is yet to finalise its bidding process for the construction of water treatment plant at Sundarijal under the Melamchi Drinking Water Project (MDWP).
The project missed yet another deadline on Wednesday after it failed to pick any of the three companies—VA Tech Wabag Limited-Pratibha lndustries, Indo-French joint venture; Japan’s Hitachi Technology and CWE China—bidding for the contract.
It has emerged that the delay was the result of differences between the government and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), one of the donors of the project. The board has blamed JICA for the delay in appointing a contractor, saying that the agency could not agree to award the contract to the lowest bidder questioning its
competence.
The Melamchi board had chosen CWE China and sent the proposal to JICA for its approval, said an official familiar with the development, but the Japanese donor agency picked out unnecessary issues rather than dealing with the core issue that it was asked to do.
The CWE China had proposed to construct the treatment plant for Rs 4.70 billion, the lowest bid. VA Tech Wabag Limited-Pratibha lndustries had quoted Rs 4.75 billion. Hitachi Technology of Japan had quoted Rs 5.7 billion, which was 8 percent higher than that of CWE.
“The validity period of the bid expired without awarding the contract despite our long preparation,” said Ghanashyam Bhattarai, deputy executive director of the Melamchi Water Supply Development Board (MWSDB)-the project’s implementing agency.
“The government has full authority to chose contractor among the competing firms and JICA could raise questions only in the case it found the status of the recommended firm dubious,” said an official of Melamchi board.
The official clarified that the government had extended the bid finalisation date due at the request of JICA, after the latter promised to give its decision by Monday. “JICA was informed that Wednesday was the last day for finalising the bid. But unfortunately it failed to keep its words.”
Refuting the accusation, JICA, however, said it was currently reviewing the proposals submitted by the competing companies along with their technical and financial status. “Awarding a contract is not an easy game, so we are putting our best efforts to come up with a fair result which might take some time,” said Shimizu Tsutomu, chief representative of JICA Nepal. He said the expiry of the date was not that important as it can be extended further. “But we need to make sure that a really competent company should be awarded the contract.”
According to Tsutomu, the review process took longer time as the MWSDB did not provide further documents related to the firms.
But Bhattarai said JICA had demanded clarification from the competing firms which the board denied to provide. “There is no need of further clarification from the companies as they have furnished all documents required to participate in the bid,” Bhattarai added. “Moreover, if JICA wants clarification from the companies, it should be able to specify if there is something suspicious about any of the companies’ status.”
Bhattarai said the board will announce its future course within a couple of days after consultations with the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD).
The bid’s validity period had been extended thrice—once by the bidders and twice by the board—for a total of 180 days.
Following a technical and financial evaluation of the bidders, the MWSDB had chosen CWE China to construct the water treatment plant. The board had invited bids for construction of the water treatment plant on April 25, 2012. The board had planned to award the contract by Jan 21, 2013.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
