It will fulfill aspiration of the people: Obaidul Quader
The government on Wednesday invited an international tender worth Tk. 10,000 crore for construction of the mainframe of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge (PMB) project, which would connect 21 districts of the country’s southern region.
Confirming the news, Md Shafiqul Islam, director of the PMB project, said: “The tender will be published in newspapers later.” Earlier, communications minister Obaidul Quader, following a meeting with a Chinese delegation, told reporters that there would be no problem allocating funds for the bridge in the next budget.
“With the invitation of the tender, a long-time aspiration of the country’s 14 crore people is going to be fulfilled,” Obaidul said.
“The tender will be valued at Tk. 10,000 crore, but it will be used only for the construction of the main structure of the bridge. Separate money and a separate tender will be floated for river training,” he said.
Replying to a query, the minister said: “We did not place any proposal before the Chinese government for financial assistance for construction of the main structure of the bridge. The bridge will be constructed with our own funds. We have the money to construct the main structure of the bridge.”
Obaidul Quader further said that the Chinese government had proposed constructing a highway connecting Bangladesh-Kolkata-Myanmar-Kunming and the government gave its nod to the proposal. The process in this regard will start soon, he added. Chinese vice-minister of transport and communication Feng Jhenglin led the delegation.
The bid documents would be available for issue from July 7, 2013 and the deadline for bid submission is 3pm, September 9, 2013. The bids will be opened at 3:30pm on September 9 in the presence of interested bidders and/or their representatives. A pre-bid meeting is scheduled to be held at 10:30am on August 12, 2013.
The non-refundable cost of one set of bid documents is USD 1,350 (or BDT 100,000), with an additional fee of USD 550 (or BDT 40,000) if delivery by international courier is requested.
This non-refundable fee must be paid in cash or in cashier’s cheque (in USD or its approx BD taka equivalent) in favour of Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project, Agrani Bank Limited, Gulshan Branch, Dhaka.
The documents may be either collected from the PMB project office by an authorised representative of the respective firm/joint venture, or requested to be sent by international courier to an address nominated by the respective firm/joint venture.
The government had signed deals to procure funds worth USD 1.2 billion from the World Bank, USD 615 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), USD 400 million from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and USD 140 million from the Islamic Development Bank, to arrange funding for the USD 2.9-billion PMB, the country’s longest bridge, spanning the huge river, connecting the underdeveloped south-western region with the capital.
However, the WB had suspended its USD 1.2 billion funding on allegations of corruption. Later, the ADB, JICA and the IDB also suspended their funding for the proposed 6.15-km PMB.
In January this year, the Bangladesh government withdrew the funding request and decided to construct the bridge with its own resources.
In the current fiscal year 2013-14, the government has proposed to allocate Tk. 6,852 crore to implement the project.
A total of 2,452 acres have been acquired for building the bridge. Out of this, 260 acres were obtained by a government order from Shariatpur, Madaripur and Munshiganj districts. Over Tk. 10 billion will be spent giving compensation to those giving land for the project.
On an earlier occasion, the communications minister had said that Tk. 205 billion would be needed to bridge the Padma.
The Prime Minister had announced that a military “composite brigade” would be deployed for the security and supervision of the PMB construction work.
Agency adds: Director of Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project Shafiqul Islam confirmed about the tender floating and said it would be available on the website of Bridges Division under the Communication Ministry from today.
“The tender will be published in newspapers later,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Communications Minister Obaidul Quader following a meeting with visiting Feng Zhenglin, vice minister of Transport and Communication Ministry, China, at his secretariat office told reporters that there will be no problem to have necessary allocation for the bridge in the next budget.
“With the invitation of the tender,” Obaidul said, “The aspiration of the country’s 14 crore people is going to be fulfilled.”
Obaidul Quader said the Chinese government has proposed constructing a highway connecting Bangladesh-Kolkata-Myanmar-Kunming and thegovernment gave nod to it and the process in this regard will startsoon.
The construction process of the Tk 20,507 crore Padma Bridge, thecountry’s largest-ever infrastructure project, got stalled as itsdevelopment partners – the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank,the Islamic Development Bank and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) – cancelled their proposed funding with corruptionallegations.
Later, the government has allocated Tk 6,852 crore in the budget for fiscal 2013-2014 to implement the mega project with its own fund.
-With The Independent input
