Main construction work of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge may not start during the current government’s tenure after the tender submission date was deferred for a second time to December 3 from November 4.
An official circular in this regard was issued under the communication ministry on October 27 by Md Alauddin, project director of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project of the Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA).
Khandokar Anwarul Islam, vice chairman of the BBA and secretary of the bridges division, on Tuesday told the Dhaka Tribune the decision was reached following a proposal by the project authority.
Asked why the date was rescheduled for a second time, the secretary suggested communicating with the project authority, saying: “They may comment on it.” The government had floated the tender back in June and only three of the pre-qualified companies will be able to take part in the bidding.
The government had earlier said five companies were pre-qualified for the project. Of those, the Vinci-HCC (a joint venture of France and India) was not interested to participate and China Communication Construction Company Ltd was on the World Bank’s blacklist.
The other three companies - Samsung C&T Corporation of Korea, China Major Bridge Engineering Co Ltd and Daelim-Bam-VCI (a joint venture entity of Korea) - have collected the tender schedules from the project office.
The first tender submission date was scheduled on September 9, which was then deferred to November 4, extending the submission date by eight weeks.
According to bridge division officials, the authority has changed the date of submission as the pre-qualified companies were not interested to invest in the project due to the current political unrest and uncertainty despite collecting the tender documents and taking part in the pre-tender negotiations.
The authorities of the companies suggested the project authority extend the date of submission until the political unrest was resolved.
The total expense of the project has been estimated at TK205bn including construction of the main bridge, river protection and construction of approach roads.
