ISLAMABAD: A number of construction firms have challenged the award of contracts worth Rs120 billion to build four sections of the Cen­tral Asia Regional Economic Coope­ration (Carec) Tranche-III corridor project, after all four contacts were awarded to the same firm.

The Chinese firm Ningxia Communication Construction (NXCC) had won all four bids to construct four different parts of the highway, earlier this month.

An NHA spokesperson confirmed that bids filed by the Chinese firm for all four lots have been challenged before the Grievance Red­ressal Cell (GRC) of the National Highway Authority (NHA).

According the spokesman, the bid for Lot-1 was challenged by M/s Zahir Khan & Bros (ZKB), Lot-2 by M/s Zhonggang Construction Group-Matracon-AWK JV, Lot-3 by by M/s ZGCC-Matracon and Lot-4 by M/s ZKB-Sultan Mehmood & Co JV.

“Initial scrutiny of the grievance complaint is being done for jurisdiction and maintainability checks,” the spokesman added.

Meanwhile, a source in the NHA said that in the wake of the challenges, the authority was in a fix over how to execute the project.

A couple of months ago, another Chinese firm, M/s China Construction Third Engineering, had challenged the NXCC’s technical clearance and raised several objections, but these were set aside by the authority.

The fresh complaints question the financial strength of the firm, specifically over the amount of construction work carried out by it over the last three years, a criteria laid down by the NHA.

Documents seen by Dawn indicate that NXCC was disqualified by the authority in 2023 for failing to complete the 62km Lodhran-Multan section, but was allowed to submit both technical and financial bids for the Carec Tranche-III project.

However, NHA Chairman Sheheryar Sultan claimed that the firm had been cleared by the court.

The complainants in the present cases have asked the NHA to furnish any such court order, which clears the firm to participate the bidding process.

The four firms have requested NHA to suspend the procurement process under Rule 48(4) of the Pakistan Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules, until the issue is resolved.

Carec Tranche-III has four lots, or sections, for which technical and financial proposals were invited. A total of 20 firms submitted their bids.

There were six companies in the run for the Lot-1 (58km Rajanpur-Jampur), seven for the Lot-2 (64km Jampur-DG Khan), five for Lot-3 (112km DG Khan-Tibbi Qaisrani), and two firms for Lot-4 (96km Tibbi Qaisrani-DI Khan).

After technical evaluation, five firms each qualified for Lots 1 and 2, four for Lot-3 and two for Lot-4. The total PC-I cost of these lots is estimated to be around Rs85.44bn.

Under Tranche-III, an additional carriageway will also be built in which a two-lane highway will be converted into a four-lane highway.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2025