The Ethiopian Railway Corporation is assessing the proposals it received from three international companies for the construction of the Awash-Mekele Railway Line in Ethiopia.
The ERC had originally invited 28 companies from all over the world including, Brazil, China, India, Russia and Turkey through the Ethiopian diplomatic missions found in those countries.
The Railway also contacted undisclosed Chinese contractors already working with it directly. The company chose to contact these companies directly because of the existing relationship according to Abiy Getachew, Manager of the Awah-Hara Gebeya-Woldeya line.
Only 12 of the International companies accepted the invitation to visit the project site, to attend a workshop and to meet with Dr. Getachew Betru, General Manager of ERC. Eight companies purchased the bid documents with just three, one from Turkey and two China, submitting proposals for the project according to official sources.The proposals will be reviewed by technical committees organized to review the tenders. The committees are expected to complete their assessment to submit to the General Manager in the next month.
The Railway Line, under consideration, is part of the National Railway Project to inter link the major cities and towns in Ethiopia along eight corridors. It is estimated that the project will take a total of173.6 billion birr to be completed.
The Awash-Mekele line is expected to form a part of the Awash to Shire corridor although the other lines are to be completed in the second phase of the project.
The first phase of the National Railway Project will concentrate on five designated routes to be completed by 2014-15.
Source: Addis Fortune
