Govt's plan to establish 10 new towns in limbo
KATHMANDU:
The government’s plan to set up 10 new towns along the Mid-Hill Highway has hit a setback after the consulting firms bidding to provide service filed a case at the Supreme Court. This has halted work on hiring new consultants to prepare a master plan for the proposed modern towns.
Preparation of the master plan and building by-laws of each planned town are considered vital to guide the development of the towns in a coordinated manner. They guide land use plan, physical infrastructure development, identification of locations for industries, residential areas, health institutions, school and college areas, extension of public utilities and roads, among others.
The government has selected two locations each in the five developments regions for the purpose. Patan (Baitadi), Sanfebagar (Achham), Rakam Karnali (Dailekh), Chaurjahari (Rukum), Burtibang (Baglung), Dumre Bhansar (Tanahun), Baireni Galchhi (Dhading), Khurkot (Sindhuli), Basantapur (Taplejung) and Phidim (Panchthar) are locations that have been selected by the government to establish the towns.
The New Town Project Co-ordination Office (NTPCO) that coordinates the township project said that they have stopped the process of hiring a consultant to prepare the master plan with the Supreme Court yet to issue a verdict. Consultants shortlisted to submit the request for
proposal (RFP) had approached the apex court against the recommendation of NTPCO to blacklist them.
After the consulting firms were found bidding by coordinating with each other, NTPCO in January had recommended the Public
Procurement Monitoring Office (PPMO) to blacklist them. WILINK Consultants in joint venture (JV) with Archetype Design Consult in association with GRID Consult, SILT Consultants JV with A-not Architecture n Architects in association with CARD Consultants and ERMC JV with NEST were found applying for the consulting service in collusion, which is against the Public Procurement Act (PPA), according to NPTCO.
As per the PPA, colluding or involving in groupism prior to or after the submission of a proposal with the objective of allocating procurement contract among the bidders is illegal. Since the case is pending in the court, the PPMO has not blacklisted the companies so far. Even though NPTCO called a fresh tender, cancelling the previous tender notice, it is yet to shortlist potential firms.
“We are not in a position to proceed with the procurement for master plan preparation as the case is in consideration of the court,” said Rabi Shah, acting project coordinator of NTPCO. He added that even though there has been a delay in master plan preparation, they were currently focusing on land pooling in Phidim, Chaurjahari and Khurkot besides preparing feasibility study of other planned towns.
NPTCO has been planning to prepare a master plan and by-laws for the 10 towns in three packages. Package one consists Phidim,
Basantapur, Khurkot and Baireni Galchhi. Dumre Bhansar, Chaurjahari and Burtibang are in package two. Similarly, Rakam-Karnali, Sanfebagar and Patan are in the third package.
Meanwhile, the government has decided to increase the budget for the 10-town development project from next fiscal year. The National Planning Commission and the Ministry of Finance have agreed to give priority to the project and allocate Rs 500 million under a separate budget head for next fiscal, according to Shah. The project was provided Rs 200 million more in the current fiscal year. The government has been planning to construct basic infrastructure by itself first and then hand over other tasks including land development and housing construction to the private sector.
Source: THT
