- Asks PPPU to invite international tenders within a week
KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah has approved the new alignment of Ghotki-Ghouspur Bridge on Indus River under which 2.7-kilometer distance would be reduced and Rs916 million would also be saved from the cost of the project.
He accorded this approval today while presiding over a meeting here at the CM House. The meeting was attended by Sindh Planning and Development (P&D) Minister Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, Imdad Pitafi, P&D Chairman Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput, Finance Secretary Hassan Naqvi, Works Secretary Aijaz Memon, senior officers of Public-Private Partnership Unit (PPPU) and the consultants.
The P&D minister said that the original alignment of the bridge on Indus River was between Ghotki and Kandhkot. The bids were issued against which 20 bidders, national and international, had participated. The chief minister recommended that the approach road from Ghotki to Kandhkot be changed to Ghotki to Ghouspur.
Bijarani also said that the advisory consortium’s scope of work was revised to re-work the construction cost estimates and update the financial model while retaining the same transaction structure. He added that there was a dire need to revise the alignment with a 5-kilometer-long link road to provide a connection to Thul road which would carry traffic from Jacobabad and Balochistan.
Replying to a question of the chief minister, a consultant said that preliminary geometric design of the new alignment on a satellite image of five-kilometer link road connecting Thul road had been made and the financial model had also been updated.
The chief minister was told that the previous alignment was 34.7 kilometers while the new alignment of Ghotki-Ghouspur Bridge was 32 kilometers and it would reduce 2.7-kilometer distance. The length of the previous bridge was 2,000-meter while the new alignment was 1,200-meter. This also saved the 800-meter length of the bridge. The cost of the previous alignment was Rs6,952 million while the cost of new alignment would be Rs6,036 million, which would save Rs916 million.
The chief minister approved the new alignment and directed the PPPU to issue `request for proposal’ (RFP) and invite international tenders within a week so that work on the project could be started within three months.
He further directed the works department to take experts of irrigation department with them while executing the project. Talking about financial model and structure, the chief minister was told that the provincial government would pay 14 per cent equity while private partners would have to put 16 per cent equity. The remaining 70 per cent would be financed through debt. P&D chairman Mohammad Waseem said that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) was also interested to finance the project.
“I am keen to put its foundation stone by the end of December 2017 so that it could be completed within three years,” the CM said.