Works Minister Rohan Sinanan has assured that local contractors will get work on the billion-dollar extension of the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway to Manzanilla.
Local contractors had complained to the T&T Guardian that following a tender process, the lone local contractor, NAMALCO, and four other companies, including the US-based GLF Construction Company, had been eliminated and only China Railway, which is owned by the Chinese Government, had passed the first evaluation technical proposal tender stage in order to move on to the second evaluation.
Contractors expressed concern that Nidco would have accepted the bid from China Railway without “any comparison and competition.”
The project, according to the published invitation to bid from Nidco, was for 14 kilometres of highway from Cumuto to Toco.
Yesterday, Sinanan said the first phase was actually from Wallerfield to Manzanilla and the second phase was from Valencia to Toco.
But he said the “project is far from being started” as the issue of land acquisition needed to be addressed, “because no project under my watch will end up like the Point Fortin Highway where a contract was awarded without the land being acquired.”
He added: “What went on there (Point Fortin project) was a disaster, The contractor had to stop and start work because land was being acquired in a piecemeal fashion.
“I am definitely on the side of local contractors. We have to find a way to get all local contractors on the job. They employ locals. We have to get their equipment back out. There is enough equipment in this country. We don’t need to bring in anything.”
Local contractors have assured they have the capacity once the project is divided into smaller packages.
They added: “The engagement of local firms will stimulate a sector which has been dormant for more than a year and by extension stimulate the economy, help deal with the unemployment problem and the highway may even be completed within the stipulated 30 months, given that all sections of the highway will be worked on simultaneously using 15-20 local firms.”
They are also concerned that if a foreign contractor got the project, “foreigners will get the work and scarce US dollars will be repatriated.”
Sinanan said he fully understood what they were saying and assured, “all their concerns are valid and I will look at their concerns before anything is done.”
However, he would gave no time frame for the start of the project, saying the key acquisition issue needed to be addressed first.
The T&T Guardian understands that of the six bids for the project, only one local company, NAMALCO, submitted a bid. The other firms to tender were US-based GLF Construction and four Chinese companies, including China Railway and Harbour Sinohydro.
Of the four companies, only China Railway’s technical proposal passed the first evaluation to move on to the second evaluation stage.