ISLAMABAD - After getting a go-ahead from Public Private Partnership Authority (PPPA), the National Highway Authority is going to finally award Sialkot-Kharian Motorway contract to M/S FWO and SMC. 

The executive board meeting of NHA is scheduled to be held on Tuesday to take a final decision in this regard after which a Letter of Intent (LOI) would be extended to the contractor. 

The NHA had received three bids from construction firms to build Sialkot-Kharian Motorway on Public Private Partnership mode.  

The bids had been submitted as a joint venture of Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) and SMC Private Limited and a joint venture of Matracon Pakistan Private Limited and Techno Private Limited while the Zahir Khan and Brothers (ZKB) Private Limited had also submitted its proposal. 

At the first stage, the technical evaluation was done and all three contestants were declared technically suitable for the project. However, the evaluation of financial proposals of the aforementioned firms was underway to reach a final decision. 

On Monday, Federal Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar chaired the 12th meeting of the Board of Directors of Public-Private Partnership Authority (PPPA) here in Islamabad. 

NHA Executive Board meets today to finalise Concession Agreement of project

Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Secretary Planning, Secretary Finance, Secretary Communications, Chairman NHA, CEO PPP Authority, and Director General (Debt) Finance Division were also present in the meeting. The meeting considered the transaction structure for the Sialkot–Kharian Motorway project. 

MoC/NHA informed the meeting that the transaction structure as proposed by the winning proponent and as approved by the NHA was in accordance with the structure earlier approved by the board and the Viability Gap Funding (VGF) was within the limits already approved.

The board gave go-ahead to the proposed transaction structure subject to codal formalities. The NHA would now commence negotiating with the preferred consortium of M/S FWO-SMC and finalise the Concession Agreement of the project.

However, the final decision to award the contract would be made by NHA Executive Board today and most likely the project would be awarded to M/S FWO and SMC. 

The total length of the project is 69km including 60km main motorway, 9km link expressway. The said motorway will start from Sambrial Interchange, an end point of Lahore-Sialkot Motorway, and terminate at Kharian on N-5 (GT Road). 

The Sialkot-Kharian Motorway traverses major populated areas of Gujrat i.e. Jalalpur Jattan, Peru Shah, Daulat Nagar, Gulyana and terminates near Kotli Bajar where it will be connected via link highway to G.T Road with grade separated interchange.