KATHMANDU, Dec 30: Local representative of the Indian consortium led by Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL & FS), which has shown interest to develop Kathmandu Tarai Fast Track Project, finally received letter issued by the Supreme Court to record its statement.
The company's representative had gone out of contact for the past two months.
The 76-km fast track road is a national pride project that connects the capital city of Kathmandu with Tarai.
Apex court officials told Republica that Pramod Rana, promoter of Suryavir Infrastructure Construction Company, received the letter on Tuesday. Rana had refused to receive the letter on October 29, stating that he was not the authorized person.
A division bench of Chief Justice Kalyan Kumar Shrestha and Justice Sushila Karki is hearing a writ petition filed by two advocates Purna Raj Kunwar and Bhairaja Rai. The petitioners have demanded that the government do not award the project to the Indian consortium“
"The consortium's representative avoided court proceedings for about two months. They might have received the letter now as we have decided to publish a public notice in newspaper, asking the company's representative to attend the heari”g," Nakul Subedi, spokesperson of SC, added.
The apex court had decided to publish the notice two weeks ago. But it wrote another letter to the company's representative after the petitioners gave another address of the company's representative.
The court had issued an interim order on October 8, directing the government to put on hold all the process of awarding the contract before a final verdict is issued. When the interim order was issued, the government was preparing to award the project to the Indian consortium in Build Own and
Operate and Transfer modality. The Sushil Koirala-led government was even prepared to fund the project using the Line of Credit announced by the Indian government.
The apex court has also collected written opinions of incumbent Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, National Planning Commission and Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, among others, on the issue.
Intellectuals, including former chief secretary Leela Mani Paudyal, have been opposing the government plan to award the project to an Indian firm, stating that the project should be developed by utilizing local resources.
Controversies surfaced after the decision to provide Rs 75 billion from Indian line of credit to the developer as well as provide minimum revenue guarantee of Rs 15 billion per year as traffic guarantee. Many say both the facilities were not announced while inviting Expression of Interest (EoI) to keep prospective developers out of the bidding process.
The government had selected the consortium to prepare detailed project report (DPR) in July. The project's estimated cost is Rs 112 billion according to the documents of bilateral negotiations between Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport and the Indian consortium.
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