Bids invited for China-Pak economic corridor project

Bids have been invited for the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan economic corridor project from Chinese construction companies and other international and local firms, a media report said today.
The bids for the country's biggest road project have been invited through national and international publications, the Dawn reported.
The CPEC is an under-construction development programme to connect Pakistan's southern Gwadar Port to China's northwestern Xinjiang via highways, railways and pipelines to transport oil and gas.
Work on one of the sections of the CPEC has been initiated this month under which a motorway from Havelian to Thakot as phase-I of the Islamabad-Raikot section of the corridor would be constructed.

The Havalian to Thakot section of the corridor is being financed by China while other phases will be carried out on the basis of build-operate-and-transfer (BOT).
The second section of the CPEC will be initiated next month for the construction of a motorway from Karachi to Hyderabad.

The third section will be initiated in a couple of months for the construction of Multan-Sukkur Motorway.
A senior official of National Highway Authority (NHA) said it was a wrong impression that only Chinese firms would execute work on all sections of the CPEC.
Bids have been invited from all international and local firms and any firm could win the contract, he added.

He said in a major strategic shift the NHA's financial regime had been changed and all mega road projects were being executed on the basis of BOT.
The official said the firms which would invest their money in the CPEC project would be paid through collection of road tax (toll).
"We will not give any prior financial guarantee to the firms but they will be given toll plazas, service areas and the right-of-way of the sections they will execute," he added.
Once the corridor is constructed, it will serve as a primary gateway for trade between China and the Middle East and Africa.