ISLAMABAD: The Public Procu­rement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) will upload the evaluation report on bids for of Mohmand dam project at its website as a public document on Monday and the cost of the project has been reduced to Rs291 billion, according to a senior official of Wapda.

The lowest bid at Rs309bn for the project was offered by a consortium led by the Descon Engineering, a firm founded by adviser to the prime minister on commerce Abdul Razzak Dawood.

However, the official told Dawn that after technical evaluation of the bids, the project cost had been reduced by Rs18bn by the executing agency — Wapda — and the total cost of the project now stood at Rs291bn.

The uploading of the evaluation report at PPRA website for public will be the first major step towards the award of the contract for the multi-billion rupees project. After that, Wapda is expected to issue letter of commencement to the consortium comprising the Descon Engineering, China Gezhouba and Voith Hydro in the second week of March.

PPRA to place evaluation report on bids for project at its website

All relevant documents will be uploaded at PPRA website as the law requires that all documents related to a public contract costing more than Rs50 million are to be made public.

Section 47 of the PPRA Rules states “As soon as a contract has been awarded the procuring agency shall make all documents related to the evaluation of the bid and award of contract public.”

However, there is exemption for certain information where the disclosure can be against public interest, but Mohmand dam does not fall in this category.

The Wapda official said that the evaluation of technical bids had resulted in the reduction of cost of the project by Rs18bn, which included omission of duplicate works and deduction of the price from errors in the tender documents etc.

“Building a large dam is a serious construction work as more than one million cubic feet of concrete is required. This is why the cost is high too as compared to other infrastructure development works,” the official said.

On the other hand, a member of Senate Standing Committee on Water Resources has written to the ministry of water resources that the cost of Mohmand dam project could be reduced by around Rs50bn.

Senator Ahmed Khan said that the project cost could be negotiated and reduced if various components and segments of the construction were taken up separately.

“The basic principal is to unbundle the project and get the negotiated rates separately for each segment,” Senator Khan said in the letter.

Significant cost reduction could be negotiated, particularly in earthworks, he added.

However, the Wapda official said that the PPRA rules did not allow the procuring agency to negotiate any financial bid.

Mohmand dam would have a gross storage capacity to store 1.9 million acre feet (MAF) water with power generation potential of 800MW and it will irrigate around 17,000 acres of land.

The execution of the project has been delayed for about five decades due to various reasons.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2019