Army Padma consultant

Bangladesh Army will be given the job of supervision consultancy of three components -- two approach roads and a service area -- of the Padma bridge project.
Talking to journalists at his secretariat office yesterday, Communications Minister Obaidul Quader said the army has already been given this task for one of the components -- Janjira approach road.
A Bangladesh-Malaysian joint venture company is constructing the approach road at Janjira point of the bridge project under a Tk 1,097-crore agreement.
And a Tk 450-crore tender has been floated recently for building the other approach road and service area at Mawa point of the project.
Supervision consultancy work of these two components will also be given to the army, officials of the Bridges Division said.
Asked about the amount of money the army will get for the consultancy, the communications minister said, “It may be Tk 25 crore.”
Officials involved in the bridge project said Buet experts will be assisting the army in doing the job.
Earlier, the prime minister had said the army would be engaged in building the 6.12 km bridge.
The government decided to construct the bridge with its own fund as the World Bank and three other international donors cancelled financing for it in June last year for alleged corruption in the project.
Quader said three pre-qualified firms have purchased tender documents for construction of the main bridge. But he did not give names of the firms.
Bridges Division officials told The Daily Star that the firms are Samsung C&T Corporation of South Korea, China Major Bridge Engineering Co Ltd and  Daelim-Bam-VCI (a joint venture entity of South Korea).
Of the two other pre-qualified firms, Vinci-HCC (a joint venture of France and India) is yet to buy tender document while China Communication Construction Company Ltd has been excluded from the biding process after it was blacklisted by the WB.
On June 26, the government floated tender for construction of the main bridge and asked the pre-qualified firms to submit bids by September 9. The estimated construction cost of the main bridge is Tk 11,829 crore or $1.18   billion.