ISLAMABAD: The National Highways Authority (NHA) Executive Board agreed with the recommendations of the Stage-II committee for payment of Rs2.85 billion to M/s CWE for out-of-court settlement of claims/disputes between the NHA and M/s CWE on Faisalabad–Gojra Motorway M-4 (Section-I) Project.

Official sources revealed that the Board also directed to hold an inquiry through an independent inquiry officer, who has never served in NHA before in the subject issue regarding delay in payments, which has accrued this huge amount to be paid from the public exchequer.

The NHA Executive Board approved the award of consultancy services for “Feasibility Study and Detailed Design for Construction of Lahore-Sahiwal-Bahawalnagar Motorway (295 km approx)” to M/s National Engineering Services Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd (NESPAK) at the agreed rationalised/reduced cost of Rs140million, which includes remuneration/salary cost, direct non-salary cost and all applicable federal, provincial and local taxes including GST, through PPRA Rule 42 (d) (iii) i.e., negotiated tendering.

The board allowed NHA for procurement of “Construction of 04 Lane Zhob Bypass (Length: 10.9 km)” as per PPRA Rule-42 (f) and hold competition amongst State Owned Entities (M/s National Logistic Cell Engineers and M/s Frontier Works Organization) through direct tendering without any advertisement. The Board also allowed to withdraw earlier advertisement regarding procurement of Zhob Bypass.

The NHA Executive Board approved the award of contracts for Operation, Management and Maintenance (OM&M) for “Package-1 i.e. TAF-ATB-T2-2023-24-04 at Havelian–Mansehra-Tahkot Section of CPEC, to the substantially responsive lowest bidder i.e., M/s Evolve Services (Pvt) Ltd M/s Waleed Associates (JV) at monthly quoted bid rate of Rs4.895million till the period ending June 30, 2024.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023