The government is likely to decide on two Indian firms soon to construct the second Bhairab and Titas bridges over rivers Meghna and Titas respectively, after more than one-and-half years of scrutinising tenders.
The railway ministry’s proposal will be placed before the cabinet committee on economic affairs on Wednesday for approval, said a senior official of the ministry yesterday. Only Indian companies participated in the bid for the projects that will be financed from the Indian $1bn credit line, as per the terms of the credit.
The official also said once the approval from the cabinet comes through, the railway ministry would start on the project of constructing the two bridges.
The timeline for implementation of the projects was from November 2010 to June 2014. However, they are yet to begin because of a delay in the selection of construction firms, the official said.
The acting secretary for the railways, Md Abul Kalam Azad told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday the main reason for the delay was due to the fact that the seven Indian applicant firms had spent a large amount of time in preparing the designs for the bridges before submitting their financial tender offers.
“The railway bridge is heavy compared to the normal bridge, so it requires more time to design railway bridges,” he added.
“We hope that the two bridges will be completed in due time as the project duration is till June 2014,” he said.
Under the proposal, in Lot-A, which involves the construction of the two bridges, the railway ministry has selected the lowest bidder IRCON-AFCONS JV, while in Lot-B the lowest bidder is GANNON-FLCL Consortium for the construction of approach roads along the side. The cost of the project is Tk5.675bn for the construction of the second Bhairab Bridge while the construction of the bridge over river Titas will cost Tk1.926bn, according to the proposal.
Seven Indian firms submitted financial offers last month, which included firms like Larsen and Toubro Ltd and Simplex-GPT JV.
Cost of the construction of Lot-A increased by 8.36% compared to projected cost while Lot-B costs increased by 0.68% in the proposal.
In November 2010, a Tk9.59bn allocation for the constructions was approved at an ECNEC meeting. The government has allocated Tk2.2bn for the projects in 2013-14 fiscal.
