Bangladesh Railway (BR) has received just a single proposal for the job of construction of a medical college and hospital at its land in the city's Kamlapur area under the PPP model after rescheduling the tender for the third time.
Sources said the United Enterprise and Company Limited, a local company which got similar work to build, operate and manage BR's hospital in Chattogram, submitted its proposal for Dhaka as time for the third extension of the tender closed on Tuesday.
They, however, said 55 companies registered for the bid since posted online on May 16.
BR opened the tender after a study through a transaction advisor under the Public Private Partnership Authority (PPPA) in 2020 - seven years after the project was taken to establish a 50-seat medical college and nursing institute and to upgrade the existing railway hospital at Kamalapur into a 250-bed hospital.
As the first tender called online closed after two months without a proposal, BR extended the time two more times in August and September.
However, PPPA officials said many companies queried about the BR's project but finally did not respond as they did not have confidence in the project due to some mistakes in the tender documents.
Citing a query from one foreign firm, an official said the concept of medical college and hospital conflicts with the business model under PPP, as a medical college is non-profit by law.
Besides, the companies did not find confidence in the BR's project due its slow nature of decision-making and execution.
According to the PPP model, the government provides the private firm its land as a public partner while the private partner uses the land by investing, building necessary structures and operating and maintaining those through earning from the services for a certain time. They also pay an amount to the government from their earnings.
BR's hospital project has been designed on 6.0 acres of land where the private investor is supposed to invest for building all necessary structures and procuring necessary equipment paying the government Tk 50 million every year.
When asked what BR would do with the lone proposal, an official said they might evaluate the proposal due to a lack of interest from others.
He, however, said a fresh tender may be called if the lone proposal is found unacceptable at the evaluation stage or rejected by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.
United Enterprise and Company Ltd, a sister concern of United Group, won the BR's hospital project in Chattogram to establish a 500-bed hospital and 100-seat medical college on six acres land for 50 years against its proposal of Tk 3.99 billion in 2020.
However, the project in the city's CRB area could not make due progress due to protests by environmentalists as many trees have to be cut to construct the hospital in the greenery-rich area of Chattogram.
smunima@yahoo.com