3 firms short-listed for Fast Track

The government has short-listed three firms for the construction of much touted Kathmandu-Terai Fast Track Project. A total of nine different firms had bought expression of interest (EoI) in a bid to win the project.
"Reliance Infrastructure, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) have been short listed for construction of the Fast Track Project," Tulsi Prasad Sitaula, secretary at the Ministry of Physical Planning, Works and Transport Management (MoPPWTM) told Republica on Friday. All the short-listed firms are India´s leading infrastructure development company.
According to Sitaula, the government has sought request for proposal (RFP) from three short-listed contractors this week. "We will choose one contractor from among the short-listed companies on the basis of detailed proposal they submit to the government," Sitaula said.
A total of nine contactors including Nepali, South Korean and Indian firms had bought EoI to develop the much touted Fast Track Project that connects Kathmandu and Terai through 76 km long road stretch. "However, only four of them submitted the proposal to the government," Sitaula said. "Another Indian construction company Gomman India was not selected."
The other contractors that bought EoI for the construction of the project were Samsung Kalika Consortium -- a consortium of Korean company Samsung Engineering and Kalika Construction, a domestic company --, Landmark Worldwide (LMW), Srei Infrastructure Finance and a domestic construction company Sonakshi Infrastructure Development.
"The companies have been selected on the basis of their previous experience working under the built-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) and other capabilities such as capital and their past history of completing work in time," Sitaula said.
The government has decided to develop the Fast Track Project under the BOOT. "We will have a rigorous study of the detailed proposal of the short-listed companies once they submit to us," Sitaula further added.
The government, after a long push to acquire land in the Khokana area of Kathmandu for Fast Track Project, has decided to reduce the width of the road.
"We realized that acquiring land in the Khokana area is too difficult," Sitaula said. "Finally, we made a decision to reduce the width of road as much as possible to make land acquisition easier."
As of now, the government has almost completed the task of land acquisition. "The land acquisition process has been done," Sitaula said. "We have to speed up the process of track opening." According to Sitaula, almost 70 percent track opening has been completed as of December first week.