Melamchi Project: Half a dozen international cos jostling for tunnel work
KATHMANDU, OCT 16 -
As the Melamchi Water Supply Development Board (MWSDB) is preparing to call a fresh bid to recruit new contractor for resuming the tunnel construction work at Melamchi Drinking Water Project (MDWP), more than half a dozen international companies have showed willingness to take over the task.
So far eight international companies including, Hyundai Constructions (South Korea), Impregilo (Italy), VINCI Construction (France), IL&FS (India) and China Water and Engineering (China), have approached the board to take over the tunnel construction works at the project.
Similarly, some other companies from Singapore, Japan and the UK are also making queries as regards the remaining construction works at the project, according to board officials.
“This is really a positive sign for a successful implementation of the project,” said Krishna Prasad Acharya, director general of the MWSDB. The board is preparing to call a bid for new contract after the termination of the contract with the Chinese contractor, China Railway 15 Bureau Group.
In its action plan made public a week ago, the government had rescheduled the project’s completion date to March 2016. It was supposed to be completed by 2015 as per the earlier estimate.
The MWSDB has called all the interested companies for a meeting on October 30, according to Acharya “We have also asked these companies to make a site visit of the project and suggest us if the project needs any revision in its design,” he went on. “After collecting their suggestions, we will float a new expression of interest on November 9.”
MWSDB, the project implementing agency, has already asked more than 15 companies to make the visit of the project site.
“Representatives from some of the companies have come to meet us, while others have been inquiring over email and telephone,” said a board official. “Some companies have also been requesting the board to award them the tunnel construction tasks on the basis of mutual agreement.”
The board also has uploaded information on the project’s status on its official website as well as those of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the association of international tunnel constructors.
The board said that it would sign a contract with a new firm on Jan 7, 2013 to resume the task. The signing of a new contract means the project will be further delayed, resulting in a spiralling cost which is expected to rise as much as by $ 100 million.
Both the MWSDB and project’s major donor ADB are committed to select the better contractor to ensure the completion of the the project within the newly scheduled date.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
