After pre-qualifying four firms to participate in the tender of a highway project in Honduras, national public-private partnership agency Coalianza reported earlier this week that the project failed to attract even a single bid.
The West CA-4 highway project, valued at over $300 million, is to be completed in two phases, with the government planning to develop the second phase itself with money already secured and the plan to bring in a private company to develop the first phase.
Phase one calls for rehabilitation and widening to four lanes of a 24-kilometre section of the roadway known as Chamelecon Naco during the first phase along with further rehabilitation of another 84-kilometre section of the same highway.
This phase is expected to create 10,000 direct and 43,000 indirect jobs.
The four pre-qualified firms who chose not to bid include Eterna SA de CV – which according to ElHeraldo.hn withdrew its bid due to very high standards requirements – Roads Consortium de Occidente, Consorcio Vial de Occidente and construction company Carrillo Caicedo, the latter of which was pre-qualified under the name Concai SA.
“We are going to convene a private meeting to establish who will win the project,” said Coalianza commissioner Miguel Angel Gamez in a media statement. “We cannot allow more than 30 days to pass on this because it is an urgent priority of the President.”
During the second phase, which will be implemented by the Secretariat of State through the Ministry of Infrastructure and Public Utilities (INSEP), a total of just over 224 kilometres is set to be improved from the entrance of Santa Rosa de Copan to border points and Agua Caliente El Poy in the department of Ocotepeque and CA-11 from Entrada, Copan, El Florido.
According to Ministry of Finance Wilfred Cerrato, who spoke with ElHeraldo.hn, Honduras has already secured $178 million, with: $89 million coming from the European Investment Bank (EIB) via a 20-year loan with four years' grace and an interest rate of 0.78 percent; $55.5 million coming from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI); and two separate grants from the Latin American Agency for Financing and another social transformation-focused organisation totaling together roughly $18 million.
Coalianza did not respond to requests for further information in time for publication.
Photo courtesy of RadioAmericasHN.com
If you do not receive this within five minutes, please try to sign in again. If the problem persists, please email: