FWO gets Rs22.8b Ring Road project contract

Officials said contract was awarded to a govt construction agency due to sensitive location of area

RAWALPINDI:

The Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) has awarded a contract of Rs22.8 billion to the Frontier Works Organization (FWO) for the construction of 38.3-kilometre-long Rawalpindi Ring Road from Rawat to Thalian.

The FWO had offered Rs300 million less bid than the estimated cost. RDA Chairman Tariq Mehmood Murtaza said that the FWO emerged as the lowest bidders after the committee opened technical and financial bids in the presence of all concerned.

He said that the financial bid was awarded after a subsequent rebate offered by the FWO.

He said that the FWO has been asked to furnish security at the rate of five per cent of the contract price which is Rs1.14 billion in the shape of cash, pay order or bank guarantee (on stamp paper) from any scheduled bank of Pakistan within 15 days from the issuance of the contract letter.

Officials said that the contract was awarded to a government construction agency due to the sensitive location of the area. The government construction agency will accomplish the task without involving a third party or a private sector.

The Punjab government has decided to construct the Rawalpindi Ring Road under the 2017 alignment, under which, the road will be constructed from N-5 GT Road Rawat Banth Mor to Thalian Interchange (Motorway-2).

The NHA had raised the objections that more than 33,000 heavy transport vehicles would enter M2 from Rawalpindi Ring Road daily, which will not only damage its infrastructure but also cause a traffic jam at the Islamabad motorway toll plaza.

The Rawalpindi Ring Road project, known as the missing link of Rawalpindi, has been in cold storage for the last 17 years. The project was launched by the previous government in its last year with a loan from the Asian Investment Infrastructure Bank of China. The bank had declared the project viable and agreed to provide the loan.

The project also had the longest economic zones on both sides of the route in the previous design.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2022.