ISLAMABAD - National Highway Authority has failed to get overwhelming response from international firms even in its ‘second attempt’ during the present government and received only two bids for the construction of Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway. 

Sources said the two bidders include a local construction company ZKB Private Limited and a consortium of a local and an Italian firm ‘Techno-CMC ACC’. 

When contacted, GM NHA Azeem Tahir confirmed that two bids have been received. He, however, said that it is too early to say anything about the fate of the bids because their technical evaluation is yet to be completed.

It is worth to mention that it is second attempt of the government to build a critical component of Peshawar to Karachi motorway network. 

In its earlier attempt, the government had received poor response to the international tender for Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway as well when only a single bidder approached NHA in 2020. 

The road authority after evaluating the legal aspects at that time had decided to go for re-tender instead of going with single tender. The project has been proposed to be constructed on Public Private Partnership basis at an approved construction cost of approximately Rs191 billion. 

The Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway project is expected to be completed in thirty months following financial close.

The private sector will be given the tolling and other ancillary development rights of the project to cover its life-cycle costs and earn an adequate rate of return on investment.

The government of Pakistan is supporting the financial viability & bankability of the project through provision of capital and operational Viability Gap Funding (VGF) by committing to provide a maximum of Rs43 billion during construction period and operational VGF payments spread over the first 7 operational years.

The Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway design is proposed to be a high-speed toll road facility for efficient and safe transportation, which would start from Hyderabad at the end of the Karachi-Hyderabad motorway M-9 and terminate at Naro Canal—a start of the Sukkur-Multan motorway M-5.

The project alignment passes through Jamshoro, Tando Adam, Hala, Shahdadpur, Nawabshah, Moro, Dadu, Naushehro Feroze, Mehrabpur, Rasoolpur, Larkana, Khairpur and Sukkur.