By Purushottam P Khatri

Kathmandu, Apr. 9: The Kathmandu/Terai-Madhes Fast Track (KTFT) Project Office has chosen the financial proposal submitted by Yooshin Engineering Corporation (Korea) JV as international consultant for taking the tunnel and sky-bridge construction works ahead.
Before the selection of the proposal, the KTFT had also shortlisted Meinhardt Pvt Ltd (Singapore) JV including the Yooshin. The final agreement in this regard is yet to happen, Brigadier General and spokesperson of Nepali Army Headquarters Bigyan Dev Pandey told The Rising Nepal Tuesday.
“Out of two shortlisted companies, the financial proposal submitted by Yooshin Engineering Corporation appeared more suitable in view of the guidelines in the Public Procurement Act and Regulation,” Pandey said.
Based on the guidelines of the Procurement Act, 90 per cent weightage was given while submitting a correct and complete technical proposal and 10 per cent for financial proposal.
The financial opening processes were done under Quality Cost Base System (QCBS) in which both the technical and financial aspects had been determined while choosing Yooshin Engineering that got the highest per cent, Pandey said.
According to Pandey, a notice regarding the selection of the proposal of Yooshin Engineering was also sent to Public Procurement Monitoring Office, under the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers on March 31.
The financial and technical proposals of the two shortlisted companies were opened on March 30 in the presence of their representatives.
There were mainly five joint venture companies taking part in the request for proposal (RFP) process including SMEC International Pvt Ltd (Australia JV, Eptisa Servicios de Ingenieria SL (Spain) JV, Dasan Consultants Co, Ltd (Korea) JV.
According to Pandey, the RFP of Eptisa Services was annulled after names of different persons were mentioned in the power of attorney. The RFP submitted by SMEC International was also cancelled after it failed to produce a complete tax clearance report for the fiscal year 2019/20 (2075/76).
Similarly, Dasan Consultant’s proposal was not shortlisted in the final stage after they too mentioned two different names having power of attorney and failed to submit the tax clearance report. The companies whose proposals were not accepted were responded to with reasons for not being selected, said Pandey.
Meanwhile, KTFT project chief and Brigadier General Sharad Lal Shrestha said the selected Yooshin Engineering Company was informed, and now they should come into contact with the Office within seven days of the notice issued. “After that the company will be provided 15 days of negotiation time.”
If the selected company did not come forth for negotiation, the Office would have to go for an alternative (Meinhardt Pvt Ltd (Singapore) JV) company for the agreement as per the rules in the Procurement Regulation, Shrestha said.
After the negations are held, the Consultant would be provided letter of intent (LoI) and 21 days after the LoI they would be called for a formal agreement with the Project Office. After the agreement, the company would again be provided 15 days of mobilisation period to reach the project field.
Calculating all these time frames, the selected international consultant will be in the field by the last week of May, said Shrestha.
According to Shrestha, the selected international consultant will then prepare technical report and specification and other detailed reports as per design and build model for selecting another international company for constructing a total of three tunnels (6.41 km) and 87 high-rise bridges along the project site.
Shrestha said that still a Nepali Army squad was working in the filed despite lockdown situation in the country to complete the road construction, cutting and filling works. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 175 billion (including VAT).