Five firms bid for Chiawa Bridge construction

Five companies have submitted their bids for construction of a bridge at Chiawa crossing on the Kafue River.

The offers were revealed when the bids were opened last week at the Zambia Public Procurement Authority (ZPPA) in Lusaka with the companies pegging the cost between K83 billion and K180 billion.

The tender floated by the Road Development Agency (RDA) saw Rumdel Construction bidding to do undertake the project at a cost of K180,596,160,000 while China Hainan International offered K83,592,014,082.

China Jiang Xi Corporation International has bid to build the bridge at K92,969,360,493, Sino Hydro Corporation’s bid is K101,965,869,883 and Sable Transport seeks to do the job at K138,786.786,785.

The bids will be forwarded to the RDA whose technical committee will scrutinise the documents before recommending the preferred bidder back to the ZPPA.

ZPPA public relations officer, Hazel Mafwenko Zulu, said the authority’s technical committee would in turn review the recommendation and pass this on to the Central Tender Committee for final approval.

The Central Tender Committee is chaired by the Ministry of Finance and National Planning permanent secretary and it includes other permanent secretaries from the ministries of Justice, Trade and Commerce, Defence, Works and Supply, Local Government and Housing, Agriculture, Education and Health.

Other members on the committee are a representative from Cabinet Office, a Zambia Revenue Authority commissioner, the Bank of Zambia deputy governor, the ZPPA director general and the ZPPA board secretary.