Govt selects builders for Sikta canal

BY THIRA L BHUSAL
KATHMANDU, July 9

The joint venture of China Tiesiju Civil Engineering Group Company Limited and Kalika Construction Private Limited has been selected for major canal construction works in Sikta Irrigation Project (SIP) in Banke district.

The joint venture of Chinese and Nepali construction companies was selected as it was found to be the lowest bidder in the international competitive bidding called by the government on May 17.

The joint venture of Chinese and Nepali companies submitted their bid of 1 billion 470 million rupees (excluding VAT) for the 11.42 kilometer long canal construction.
The other two -- the second lowest and third lowest bidding -- construction companies proposed costs of over two billion rupees, according to Senior Division Engineer Raghu Nath Shrestha of the Department of Irrigation (DoI), under Ministry of Water Resources. The Sinohydro Corporation of China, which has been constructing the dam of the irrigation project, was second lowest bidder and China Water International Electric Corporation was the third lowest bidder in the international competition. The tender was floated on July 1.

However, DoI will thoroughly verify the companies' documents and their application procedures before formally okaying their bids, according to Shrestha. "If the joint venture of the two Nepali and Chinese companies is disqualified, there will be some difficulty in offering the project to the second lowest bidder as there is huge difference between the lowest and second lowest bid amounts," he clarified.

Sinohydro, a Chinese state-owned construction company, that has been building the dam of the project will complete the construction work up to 614 meters of the dam. Then, China Tiesiju Civil Engineering Group Company Limited and Kalika Construction will undertake the construction of the main canal from 614 to 12,036 meters.

Besides the aforementioned three companies, China Gezhouba Group Company also qualified for bidding. However, it did not bid for the project.

Likewise, other Nepali construction companies have been selected for construction of three other sections of the canal through national bidding competition. The other national companies selected are joint venture of Tamang Construction Company and Rasuwa Construction Company, and joint venture of Waiba Bhairav, and Himdung and Thokar construction company.

The former will construct the canal from 12,036 to 13,000 meters while the latter will construct the remaining two sections - 13,000 to 14,000 meters and from 14,000 up to 15,000 meters, according to Shrestha.

The government had called for re-bid for canal construction works as the lowest proposal in the past bid was more than the estimated cost.

The total cost of the project was estimated at over seven billion rupees some years back. But, in view of rise in the price of construction materials and other factors, the total cost of the entire Sikta Master Plan was estimated at 12 billion rupees when it was updated last December, Shrestha informed.

Around 36,766 hectares land in the mid-western region will be irrigated by the project.

THE KATHMANDU POST