Padma project slows down

Tender process for the proposed Padma Multipurpose Bridge has slowed down as the funding agencies could not reach a consensus on the rules and preconditions to be set in the tenders.

Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain said this yesterday while talking to reporters after a meeting with a team of Asian Development Bank (ADB) at his secretariat office.

Leading funding agencies of the project are the World Bank (WB), ADB, Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica), Islamic Development Bank and Abudhabi Fund.

Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, secretary to Bangladesh Bridge Authority, said the WB wants to include only its anti-corruption guidelines in the tender documents, which the ADB and Jica protested.

The ADB and Jica asked for their anti-corruption guidelines to be incorporated in the tenders as well and said their lists of debarred contractor firms should also be followed.

"We have written to the WB a couple of times mentioning the ADB's position, but there have been no response yet," said Bhuiyan.

The tender document was sent to the WB in January along with the names of short-listed pre-qualified bidders. The WB approved five pre-qualified firms in the first week of July.

Though none of the five pre-qualified bidders is on the black list of any of the three financiers, the anti-corruption guidelines will be necessary for appointment of sub-contractors and future safeguard.

The WB is expected to provide $1.2 billion and the ADB $615 million for the $2.9 billion project.

The proposed Padma Bridge, longest in the country, will connect 19 districts of the country's south-western part and will be linked to the Asian Highway.

The communications ministry had announced that the mega-project of constructing 6.15km-long bridge was proposed to be completed by December 2013. Now the target year is 2015.

Replying to reporters' questions, the minister said the project would be implemented even if the construction period extends into the tenure of another government.

The meeting's objective was to assess ADB's role in various proposed transport projects including rapid bus service, Padma Bridge and regional and sub-regional connectivity.

Source : The Daily Star 

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