EoIs to be called to build Fast Track
KATHMANDU, MAY 26 -
The Ministry of Physical Planning, Works and Transport Management said on Friday that it would invite fresh expressions of interest (EoI) to build the Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track setting in motion the long-stalled project.
EoIs will be called within the current fiscal year to select qualified international investors for the much ballyhooed speedway. Requests for EoIs will represent a formal invitation to investors to build the 76-km express road linking Kathmandu with the southern plains. In March 2011, the ministry had scrapped the EoIs received in response to its second invitation after the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) directed the government to ensure that Nepali investors have a minimum 10 percent stake in the total investment.
Currently, a high-level committee under the coordination of former secretary Birendra Bahadur Deuja is working on preparing guidelines for inviting bids and selecting an international investor for the Fast Track. The government has decided to build the national priority express road as a public-private partnership under the build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) modality.
“The committee is scheduled to prepare the guidelines before July 6,” said Tulasi Prasad Sitaula, secretary at the Physical Planning Ministry. He added that as soon as the panel completes its work, EoIs would be called for short listing
eligible international firms.
The road project is estimated to cost around Rs 80 billion. Ministry officials said that international firms applying for the contract in a joint venture with Nepali companies would be given priority as per the government’s plan to encourage Nepali investors in big projects. However, it is not compulsory for international investors to have a local partner.
Meanwhile, the Nepal Army has opened 51 km of track of the proposed Fast Track road. The government has fixed the ceiling of Rs 1 billion for the project for the next fiscal year for track opening, improvement and compensation for land on the route. “Next year we will invite requests for proposals from eligible investors,” said Sitaula. “The road is expected to come into operation within the next four years.”
In the first EoI called in 2009, two companies—Land Mark Worldwide of South Korea and Reliance Infrastructure, a part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group of India—had been short-listed. Last year, five international firms had purchased EoI documents during the re-call for EoIs. “Ministry officials said that the firms that had been selected in the past would have to apply again if they were still interested,” said an official.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
