The cabinet committee on economic affairs yesterday directed the ICT
ministry to relaunch a tender to select a bidder for development of the
Kaliakoir hi-tech park.The directive came from a meeting of the committee, chaired by Finance Minister AMA Muhith.The ministry of Information Communication and Technology was in a
dilemma about appointing a bidder as a partner of the winning firm was
found to be a loan defaulter.
The ministry at yesterday’s meeting placed some alternative proposals.The law ministry also turned down a proposal to award the job to the winning bidder, a consortium of Malaysia-based Kulim Technology Park Corporation (KTPC) and its local partners: SPL-IOE-KHL.The moves came as the central bank informed the ministry that a member of KTPC Consortium—Khansons Holdings Ltd—was not a loan defaulter as an institution. But Khansons Textiles, where two directors of Khansons Holdings have interests, was a defaulter, according to the ICT ministry.Among the alternative proposals of the ICT ministry were to sign an agreement with the successful bidder, or cancel the entire bidding and start the process afresh.The government can also build the hi-tech park under its own supervision, according to another option put up by the ministry.The winning bidder was supposed to spend Tk 1,000 crore in the next eight years to construct infrastructure in the hi-tech park, the first of its kind in the country.The completion of the project will be further delayed as work needs to start afresh, an ICT ministry official said.Another official said the ministry should have first settled the matter of loan default by the successful bidder, and then proceeded with the bidding process.The decision to build the park on 232 acres was taken in 1999.
The ministry at yesterday’s meeting placed some alternative proposals.The law ministry also turned down a proposal to award the job to the winning bidder, a consortium of Malaysia-based Kulim Technology Park Corporation (KTPC) and its local partners: SPL-IOE-KHL.The moves came as the central bank informed the ministry that a member of KTPC Consortium—Khansons Holdings Ltd—was not a loan defaulter as an institution. But Khansons Textiles, where two directors of Khansons Holdings have interests, was a defaulter, according to the ICT ministry.Among the alternative proposals of the ICT ministry were to sign an agreement with the successful bidder, or cancel the entire bidding and start the process afresh.The government can also build the hi-tech park under its own supervision, according to another option put up by the ministry.The winning bidder was supposed to spend Tk 1,000 crore in the next eight years to construct infrastructure in the hi-tech park, the first of its kind in the country.The completion of the project will be further delayed as work needs to start afresh, an ICT ministry official said.Another official said the ministry should have first settled the matter of loan default by the successful bidder, and then proceeded with the bidding process.The decision to build the park on 232 acres was taken in 1999.
No comments:
Post a Comment