NHA Board Okays Out of Court Settlement in Faisalabad-Gojra Motorway Dispute

The National Highway Authority (NHA) Executive Board agreed with the recommendations of the Stage-II committee for payment of Rs. 2.85 billion to CWE for out of court settlement of claims/disputes between the National Highway Authority & CWE on Faisalabad-Gojra Motorway M-4 (Section-I) project. Official documents revealed that the Board also directed to hold an inquiry through an independent inquiry officer, who has never served in NHA before in the subject issue regarding delay in payments, which has accrued this huge amount to be paid from the public exchequer. The Executive Board approved the award of Consultancy Services for “Feasibility Study and Detailed Design for Construction of Lahore – Sahiwal-Bahawalnagar Motorway (295 km Approx.)” to National Engineering Services Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd. (NESPAK) at the agreed rationalized/reduced cost of Rs. 140 million, which includes remuneration/salary cost, direct non-salary cost and all applicable federal, provincial and local taxes including GST, through negotiated tendering. The Board allowed NHA for procurement of “Construction of 04 Lane Zhob Bypass (Length: 10.9 Km)” as per PPRA Rule-42 (f) and hold competition amongst state owned entities (National Logistic Cell Engineers and Frontier Works Organization) through direct tendering without any advertisement. The Board also allowed to withdraw earlier advertisement regarding procurement of Zhob Bypass. The Executive Board approved the award of contracts for Operation, Management and Maintenance (OM&M) for Package-1 at Havelian-Mansehra-Tahkot Section of CPEC, to the substantially responsive lowest bidder i.e., Evolve Services (Pvt) Ltd/ Waleed Associates (JV) at monthly quoted bid rate of Rs. 4.895 million till the period ending June 30, 2024.