Let me get this right... We are talking about a 32.1 km (19.95 miles) long elevated expressway. And the cost is Tk. 8,617 crore, that is Tk. 86,170,000,000. Using 1 US$ to Tk. 69 conversion rate, the cost is US$ 1,248,840,580. That is, 1.2 billion US$. Can this be right for building a 20 mile highway, elevated, underground, or however?? Lets use some perspective, entire Bangladesh garment export is $4 billion US dollars for one year. This 20 mile highway construction cost is more that 25% of that?? I am not a civil engineer, nor am I an expert in this. But to a layman like me, it seems very very high.
-----------------------------------------
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=133294
4 firms short-listed for expressway
Rejaul Karim Byron
The government has short-listed four companies for the Dhaka Elevated Expressway project at an estimated cost of Tk 8,617 crore.
The Bridge Division yesterday informed the cabinet committee on economic affairs about the matter at a meeting at the Cabinet Division with Finance Minister AMA Muhith in the chair.
The Bridge Division asked the committee to give it Tk 2,500 crore allocated for public-private partnership (PPP) in the current budget to meet the primary expenses including consultants' fees.
The meeting, however, did not take any final decision in this regard. If needed, the Bridge Division will be given more than Tk 2500 crore for the purpose, meeting sources said.
The four companies are Italian-Thai Development Public Company Ltd (Thailand), Sikder Real Estate KCC JV (Bangladesh-Korea), Gammon Infrastructure Projects Ltd. Bouygus Travaux Publics SA Consortium (India-France) and China Railway International Ltd (China).
A 7-member experts committee headed by Prof Dr Jamilur Reza Chowdhury selected the four companies after examining pre-qualification proposals of nine local and foreign companies, meeting sources said.
The committee has advised the Bridge Division to float the final tender to select one of the four companies.
In November last year, the Bridge Division invited international tender to select pre-qualified investors.
The experts committee categorised AR Track Hawai Rocket Rahmat (Bangladesh) and BPHB-BCC JV (Malaysia-Bangladesh) as unresponsive as they had not met the mandatory requirements to qualify.
Soma Enterprise (India), Sino-Global (China-USA) and Simplex-Seri JV (India) were not selected as they failed to score 60 -- the minimum points to qualify.
The government has already appointed AECOM Australia Proprietary Ltd as consultant to the project. It will complete the work in three months.
As per the preliminary estimate of the communications ministry, the four-lane Dhaka Elevated Expressway (Gazipur-Narayanganj) will cover 32.1 kilometres and cost Tk 8,617 crore.
Meanwhile, the cabinet committee on economic affairs at the meeting yesterday decided to import 3 lakh metric tonnes of wheat from Russia on state-to-state basis.
The committee also approved manpower and organogram of "National Wage and Productivity Commission 2010" to fix the wage of state-owned industrial units.
A 19-member committee headed by a retired secretary will be formed for the purpose, which will cost the government about Tk 79 lakh per month.
The committee will work for six months.
------------------------------------
[Disclaimer: ALOCHONA Management is not liable for information contained in this message. The author takes full responsibility.]
To unsubscribe/subscribe, send request to alochona-owner@egroups.comYahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alochona/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alochona/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
alochona-digest@yahoogroups.com
alochona-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
alochona-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/