KATHMANDU, JUL 13 -
Nepali companies have begun scouting for partners among international firms to invest in the Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track Project after the government invited expressions of interest (EoI) to build the speedway.
On Wednesday, the government made a fresh call for EoI to construct the 76-km express road. According to the terms of reference, Nepali companies are allowed to invest up to 10 percent of the total cost of the project in a consortium or joint venture with international firms.
Officials at the Fast Track project office said that they had received a number of queries from international companies, local firms seeking a partnership, representatives of global firms and potential agents for foreign investors. The government plans to construct the Fast Track, which has a price tag estimated at more than Rs 80 billion, through public-private partnership on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis.
Meanwhile, the Federation of Contractors’ Association of Nepal (FCAN) on Wednesday wrote to its counterpart the International Construction Association of Korea (ICAK) in a bid to encourage Korean investment in the speedway. The ICAK is an organisation of Korean contractors involved in overseas construction and infrastructure development activities.
“The ICAK is likely to reply within a week about the interest of Korean contractors,” said Jayaram Lamichhane, president of the FCAN. “We will be happy to collaborate with Korean companies on this project. However, it is hard to say if foreign firms will be interested because of the poor political situation in the country.”
The FCAN had written to the ICAK as per an accord the two signed two months ago to exchange information about potential joint ventures, investment opportunities and infrastructure development projects in their respective countries.
The pact aims to promote participation of each other’s member contractors in engineering, construction and infrastructure developments projects.
According to the Ministry of Physical Planning, Works and Transport Management, Indian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese and a number of European contractors have shown interest in working on the Fast Track project. Landmark Worldwide Company of Korea, which had applied to invest in the project in 2009 and 2011, has also shown interest in the project.
“We are planning to call a pre-bid meeting to clarify the criteria and investment procedure to potential investors,” said Dinesh Prakash Basnet, manager of the Fast Track project. He added that they had received many queries but nobody had bought any EoI documents till Thursday.
During the call for EoI in 2009, five foreign firms had purchased the application documents, and two of them—Reliance Infrastructure of India and Landmark Worldwide of Korea—had been shortlisted. Similarly, Gammon India, Landmark Worldwide and Reliance had applied during the second call for EoIs last year.
According to the Fast Track project, six applicants from among those submitting EoIs will be shortlisted to submit Requests for Proposal. The selection process was cancelled last year after the dissolved parliamentary Public Accounts Committee directed the government to ensure that at least 10 percent of the investment came from Nepali investors.
Source: http://www.ekantipur.com/2012/07/13/business/kathmandu-tarai-fast-track-project-call-for-eoi-sends-nepali-firms-looking-for-partners/357055/
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