ISLAMABAD: The city managers are all set to award the contract of a mega road project — construction of 10th Avenue — to the National Logistics Cell (NLC).

Four days after the CDA board approved award of the contract to a government-owned company, the authority on Monday conducted a competition between Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) and the NLC and found the latter’s bid of Rs10.2 billion to be the lowest against the Rs10.9 submitted by FWO.

“After completing codal formalities, we will award the contract to NLC,” said an official of the CDA, adding the authority had invited two other government-owned organisations — Railcop and National Construction Company — but they did not participate.

According to CDA officials, 10th Avenue will be constructed in two phases. In the first phase, a five-km road will be constructed from I.J. Principal Road/Katarian Bridge to Srinagar Highway near the edge of G-9 and the starting point of G-10. Once started, work on the project will be completed in 21 months.

The officials said that in future the second phase will be constructed from Srinagar Highway to Margalla Road.

On Wednesday, Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved the construction of 10th Avenue from I.J.P Road to Srinagar Highway at a total cost of Rs12.1 billion.

NLC is already executing two major construction projects of CDA: 7th Avenue Interchange and widening and overhauling of I.J.P Road. Work on the two projects is in progress. The FWO is executing the Margalla Road project.

Sources in the CDA said that in a bid to avoid controversies related to the award of contracts, the CDA’s management was focusing on awarding major contracts to government organisations.

“These two companies (FWO and NLC) have full capacity to complete the projects within the deadline. In the past, several projects saw delay due to contractors’ delaying tactics, so now we are hopeful that all the major contracts will be completed well on time,” said an official.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2021