Mechi-Mahakali Electric Railway: DPR contracts awarded for two more sections of railway project
KATHMANDU, MAR 09 -
The government has awarded the contract to prepare a detailed project report (DPR) of another two sections of the Mechi-Mahakali Electric Railway. The proposed rail link will extend along the length of Nepal from the eastern to the western borders.
The Railway Department has signed agreements with two consortium consultants to conduct the detailed survey and design of the two sections. A consortium consisting of Soosung Engineering of South Korea and a local firm Full Bright Consultancy has been contracted to do the DPR of the 114 km Simara-Tamsaria section.
Likewise, another South Korean company Dohwa Engineering and Full Bright Consultancy has received the contract for the 109 km Tamsaria-Butwal-Bhairahawa section. The two consultants will carry out the DPR on the basis of the feasibility study report prepared by RITES in 2010.
According to the department, the consultants have a year to complete the detailed design, cost estimate and bid documents. The detailed design includes designs and drawings of all the infrastructure including railway tracks, electrical traction system, power supply system, signalling and emergency communication, bridges, culverts, station buildings, station platforms, sheds and workshops and other required structures and facilities for operation of the railway .
“We started working on it immediately after signing the agreement with the government,” said Lal Krishna KC, project director of the consortium. He added that the main Korean officials had arrived to start work on the DPR, and that other professionals would be visiting Nepal regularly as required.
The winning contractors were selected based on an evaluation of their technical and financial proposals. A total of 19 global firms had submitted expressions of interest last year.
After the applicants were short-listed and asked to submit requests for proposal (RFP), five of them — Soosung Engineering, Systra SA of France, Ineco Ingenieria y Economia del Transporte SA of Spain and URS Scott Wilson India and RITES of India — presented proposals to conduct the DPR of the Simara-Tamsaria section.
Similarly, Dohwa Engineering, Systra SA, URS Scott Wilson India, RITES and Ineco Ingenieria y Economia del Transporte SA submitted proposals for the Tamsaria-Butwal-Bhairahawa section.
The government has accorded priority to these two sections as they will link Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha, in the west with Bardibas. Meanwhile, the existing Janakpur-Jayanagar railway will be upgraded to broad gauge and extended till Bardibas.
According to the department, consortiums consisting of South Korean, Nepali and Indian firms are at the final stages of preparing DPRs of the Bardibas-Simara section and Simara-Birgunj section. They are expected to submit their reports within a month.
A draft report of the 136 km Bardibas-Simara-Birgunj section has showed that the rail link will cost a minimum of Rs 720 million per km. Trains running on this track will have a top speed of 160 km per hour.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
