FWO submits Rs11bn bid for Islamabad Expressway expansion project.

ISLAMABAD -- The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has received a bid of Rs11 billion from the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) for the project under which the 7km Islamabad Expressway from PWD to Grand Truck (G.T.) Road will be expanded.

The bid is being evaluated by a committee of the civic body. The CDA had recently called bids from government-run construction firms, to which the FWO and National Logistics Cell (NLC) responded.

According to sources, the NLC quoted a bid of Rs11.7bn while the FWO submitted a bid of Rs10.9bn. Therefore, as per the rate, the FWO submitted the lowest bid.

According to CDA sources, the civic body had opened bids on June 10. At present, the Bid Evaluation Committee (BEC) was evaluating the FWO's bid.

CDA's committee carrying out evaluation process

The committee has met once and the lowest bidder has been asked to submit rates in the next meeting, the sources said.

After the committee's approval, the CDA management will accept the bid before issuing work orders.

The expansion project once started will be completed in 18 month. Besides, expanding the expressway from PWD to Rawat from the existing two lanes to four on both sides, construction of Sohan bridge is also part of the project.

Last month, the CDA board had given a go-ahead to the civic body to execute the project through a government contractor under 42(F) rules of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA), which allowed government-owned organisations to directly contract other state-owned entities.

The CDA officials said the civic agency had already built several interchanges on the expressway and carried out interventions to ensure smooth flow of traffic, but they had not been of much use.

The officials said...