THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The much-delayed second phase development of the Karamana-Kaliyikkavila highway project has got a new lease of life as the fresh tender called for the third time saw a participation of three companies. The tender was opened on Monday and the companies took part in the bidding process are Uralungal Labour Contract Co-operative Society Limited, EKK Infrastructure limited and Sree Dhanya Constructions which had participated earlier too.
In the last two bidding process, only one company participated in addition to Sree Dhanya. According to Kerala Road Fund Board, who has been entrusted to oversee the tender process, the technical bid has just opened and it has to be evaluated by a technical committee. After the evaluation, financial bids will be opened which finalises the contractor of the project.
“It will take two to three days to evaluate the technical bids. The contractor is likely to be selected within 10 days after evaluating the financial bids. Then the bid has to be approved by a committee. So it will take at least a month for the whole process to complete. Hopefully, the development work can be started by December end after coming to a final agreement with the contractor,” a senior KRFB officer Sajith told Express.
The KRFB had to call the tender again after Sree Dhnaya constructions backed off owing to the low amount quoted by the government for purchasing raw materials including rock. The company had sought ten per cent higher than the actual cost to Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) due to the rise in the price of raw materials and the unavailability of rock. Sree Dhanya was also the contractor of the first phase from Neeramankara to Pravachambalam.
The tender process for the 5.6-km-long road stretches between Pravachambalam and Kodinada near Balaramapuram was delayed for several months. The cost for the second phase is estimated at Rs 111.5 crore. The 5.6-km stretch between Pravachambalam and Kodinada at Balaramapuram is the major part of the second phase of Karamana-Kaliyikkavila stretch. Earlier, Rs 266.67 crore was handed over to the Revenue Department for land acquisition in the Pravachambalam-Balaramapuram stretch.
Of this, Rs 122.46 crore was also disbursed to the landowners. Earlier, rehabilitation of around 22 families at the Old Rajapatha area near Pravachambalam remained a major hurdle for several months. That issue was settled later with the intervention of the district administration. The government also had to re-tender the bidding process as there was only a single bid submitted early in May. Later, the government floated a tender again, and two companies, one of which was Sree Dhanya Constructions, participated.