Italian-Thai venture gets expressway job

The communications ministry has finally selected the Italian-Thai Development Company Ltd (ITDCL) as technically responsive bidder for the proposed Dhaka Elevated Expressway (DEE).
As a result, the financial offer of ITDCL will be opened soon in order to award the contract to the joint venture company of Italy and Thailand.
Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain yesterday briefed the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and other senior ministers the technical evaluation result during a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith presided over the meeting and the prime minister joined it on a special request.
ITDCL and Sikder Real Eastate-KCC JV (Bangladesh-South Korea) have been vying as responsive bidders for the project.
But in the technical evaluation, the Sikder-KCC JV failed to obtain adequate marks and finally got out of the race, said the communications minister.
Now, as per decision of the Bridge Division of the communications ministry, the financial offer of ITDCL will be opened for consideration of the government and the financial offer of Sikder-KCC JV will be returned unopened to the company.
The minister said the Bridge Division will open the ITDCL's financial offer tomorrow.
“I have given nod to a proposal to open the financial offer of ITDCL on December 15,” he told UNB.
The officials said the ITDCL got 88 percent marks while Sikder-KCC obtained only 65.2 percent. As per condition, it was mandatory to get at least 80 percent marks to qualify for opening the financial offer.
After rejection, an official of the Sikder-KCC alleged that an influential quarter at the communication ministry has manipulated the technical evaluation of the project.
He said now they will urge the government to reconstitute the evaluation committee, which will work under the direct supervision of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) instead of the communications ministry.
When asked, Abul Hossain, however, did not want to make any comment on the issue and said the evaluation was done by a committee who should make their own comments on the matter.
He informed that in the committee meeting, the prime minister instructed him to promptly start the work of the project as it is a very high priority project of the government.
The present government undertook the 26-kilometre DEE project as part of its move to ease traffic congestion in the capital.
The project will be implemented in phases of which first phase is from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport and end at Kutubkhali of Chittagong Highway.
The cost of the first phase of the project has been estimated at $ 2 billion.
The route alignment of first phase of DEE is Airport-Kuril-Banani-Mohakhali-Tejgaon-Satrasta-Moghbazar-Rail corridor of Kamlapur through Khilgaon-Golapbagh-Kutubkhali.
On completion of the first phase, the expressway will be expanded to Joydevpur and Narayanganj.
It is expected that gradually the main avenues of the capital including Manik Miah Avenue will be linked to the designed route of the expressway.
“Linking the bypass road planned in the eastern side of the capital to the elevated expressway is also being considered strongly,” said a Bridge Division source.
The project was planned to implement as public-private partnership project where the government will have 30 percent equity investment. The selected bidder will have to implement the project on build-own-operate basis.
The Bridge Division invited tender in June this year and initially nine local and international companies participated in the bidding process. Among them, four companies were short listed by the Bridge Division as pre-qualifies bidders.
But when the request for proposal was sought from the four companies, only two of them responded and submitted their final technical and financial offers.
A tender evaluation committee headed by Buet's former vice-chancellor Prof Jamilur Reza Chowdhury selected the ITDCL and Sikder-KCC JV as technically responsive bidders for the project.
Project Coordinator of the DEE Abdul Wadud said the Bridge Division is expecting to select a bidder within current month and award contract by the first week of January 2011.
The Dhaka Elevated Expressway has been planned to improve road connectivity between the northern part of Dhaka City and the central, south and south eastern parts linking important commercial and business centres of the capital.
However, as per schedule, the implementation of the project was supposed to start in 2010 and completed by December 2013.