ISLAMABAD, Sept 23: Bids for around Rs 13 billion construction work of Peshawar-Islamabad motorway project M-1, will be opened here on Tuesday and a new Turkish joint venture seems set to win the contract.

The National highway Authority (NHA) has completed technical negotiations with the three bidders during the last two days.

The negotiations with Turkish bidder have gone well as the NHA was keen to link its Rs six billion held up money with the former Turkish firm that was expelled from the project three years back, a senior official of the NHA told Dawn.

Three parties that have been shortlisted for the project include a joint venture of Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), a construction subsidiary of general headquarters and Husnain Construction, Pakistan Motorway Contractors Joint Venture (PMCJV) comprising local companies SKB, Descon, Habib Rafiq Construction, Hakas, Sachal, Shahzaman, Mian Nisar company and Sanaullah & Moosid and a Turkish consortium comprising Limak, Teksar, Kolin, Izhar, Gammon, Karcon, MMB-Sky joint venture.

The project has already consumed over Rs 23 billion without construction of even one kilometre of the 160-km motorway.

According to engineers’ estimates, the project would cost Rs 11 billion while the NHA had awarded through negotiations to the local contractors, Pakistan Motorway Contractors, which had to be shelved due to the directives of President Pervez Musharraf for open tendering.

The successful bidder would be paid 2.5 per cent of the total cost in advance to start the construction work in case of local contractor and 7.5 per cent advance in case of foreign contractors, the sources said.

The NHA official said negotiations and contracting process would be finalized by the end of October this year and the project would be completed within three to four years.

Under the original agreement, Bayinder was required to hand over completed M-1 project to the NHA by December 2002, but was expelled from the project for not meeting certain target dates. The termination of agreement has delayed the project by at least another four years and got the NHA’s Rs six billion stuck up with the Turkish banks.