Padma bridge tender floated

The government yesterday finally floated tender for construction of the main bridge of the Padma project. Finance Minister AMA Muhith, however, said he was not sure if the work order could be issued by December. In advertisements published in today's newspapers, five pre-qualified firms have been asked to submit bids by September 9. Besides placing ads in national dailies, Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) has posted the tender on its website. The BBA said it would hold a pre-bid meeting with the bidders on August 12. Earlier in July 2011, it selected the five pre-qualified bidders. The firms are Samsung C&T Corporation of South Korea, China Major Bridge Engineering Co Ltd, Daelim-Bam-VCI (a joint venture entity of South Korea), Vinci-HCC (a joint venture of France and India) and China Communication Construction Company Ltd. The estimated construction cost of the main bridge is Tk 11,829 crore or $1.18 billion. Another tender involving Tk 704 crore or around $70 million inviting fresh bids for appointment of construction supervision consultant (CSC) for the main bridge and river training work was published yesterday. Talking to journalists at his secretariat office, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said bids have been invited in a transparent manner so that experienced international contractors can participate. He said the government would open a separate foreign currency account of $1.2-1.4 billion with Bangladesh Bank for bearing the foreign exchange liability of the project. The construction of the bridge would continue no matter who forms the next government, the minister added. After the World Bank raised graft allegations in September 2011, all work of the bridge project stopped, and in June last year, the WB cancelled its $1.2 billion financing for the project. Then in September, following a request from the government, the global lender again got involved in the project.  But the two sides failed to agree on the process of investigation into the corruption allegations, and on January 31 this year, the government withdrew its request. Earlier, for appointment of construction supervision consultant for main bridge and river training work, five pre-qualified bidders including Canadian SNC-Lavalin were selected. But because of the WB's corruption charges against SNC-Lavalin, the process was abandoned and a fresh tender has been floated. The government now says it will construct the bridge with its own fund in four years at an estimated cost of $2.9 billion.