The Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) has sought assistance from the Punjab Planning and Development (P&D) Board to hire another consultancy firm for the Ring Road (R3) project in the metropolis.
The development comes after it disqualified two other firms that had shown interest in the third-party verification of the ideal route plan for the R3.
Brief History
According to reports, P&D Board had directed RDA to appoint a consultant on the orders of Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif. Following this, RDA released an advertisement, after which, two firms submitted their proposals on 19 September.
Consequently, the Evaluation Committee reviewed their technical proposals and produced them before a meeting of the Consultant Selection Committee (CSC) that was held on 30 September.
However, the Committee members rejected both parties on grounds of not fulfilling eligibility criteria as mentioned in the terms of references (TORs) in the advertisement. In addition, the Selection Committee sought the P&D Board to authorize a re-advertisement of the proposal.
In this regard, RDA detailed that it can either re-advertise in the national newspapers for local firms or contact global firms for the project. According to an RDA official, local firms lack experience with third-party validations, thus it is more feasible to hire an international firm under a joint venture.
Details Regarding R3’s Old and New Designs
In the previous plans, the project was worth Rs. 64 billion with a 66.3 km length. However, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government redesigned the project and decreased it to 38 km, after which former PM Imran Khan inaugurated it, and its contract was granted to Frontier Works Organization (FWO).
In the new alignment, its total cost has been estimated at Rs. 33.7 billion, including Rs. 27 billion in construction costs and Rs. 6.7 billion for land acquisition.
As per the Chief Engineer RDA, Dr. Habib Randhawa, work on hiring a third party is underway and the authority awaits P&D Board’s approval.
Via Dawn News
