The technical evaluation for the operation of the Nagdhunga-Sisnekhola tunnel has been completed and the economic evaluation work has been moved forward. Out of the 10 companies participating in the procurement process to operate the tunnel, 7 have been successful. Now only one company will be selected from the seven. Currently, 6 Chinese and one Indian companies are in competition. Where all of them have a Nepali company in a joint venture (JV). 

The company to operate the tunnel will be selected within 15 days, claims the director of the Nagdhunga Tunnel Construction Project, Soujanya Nepal. ‘The economic evaluation work is underway,’ he said, ‘the economic evaluation process will be completed within a week.’ Vehicles will be able to drive through the tunnel after the new government completes all the processes and decides on the operation date. 

The tunnel was built with a concessional loan of 16 billion rupees from Japan. The Japanese government insists that blacklisted companies should not be allowed to operate the tunnel. According to the project, none of the companies currently in competition are blacklisted under the Public Procurement Monitoring Office. 

‘The companies blacklisted by the Public Procurement Monitoring Office have not been selected,’ said Chief Nepal, ‘We did not find any blacklisted companies during the technical evaluation. We have looked at everything that needs to be looked at according to the Procurement Act and the law.’ He said that the companies currently competing are not on that list because the Public Procurement Monitoring Office also blacklists foreign companies that take contracts in Nepal. According to project sources, no objections were found even after checking whether they are blacklisted in foreign countries. 

The Japanese government is interested in what kind of company will be selected. There are 9 major banks in the world and companies shortlisted are usually checked to see whether they are blacklisted under those banks, said former Secretary Arjun Jung Thapa. ‘Which is published publicly on the website,’ he said, ‘In other cases, information should come from somewhere that they have been blacklisted.’ 

The work on the Nagdhunga tunnel has been 98 percent completed. All work has been completed except for landslide management and construction of toll plazas on the Dhading side. Initially, 6 Chinese, 3 Indian and 1 Turkish companies participated in the competition to operate the tunnel. Now, 7 companies have been selected in the 'shortlist'. Although the Japanese government has taken a stand that companies owned by the Chinese government and those on the blacklist should not be selected, the most Chinese companies have now been selected in the final competition for service providers. 

The companies that passed the technical evaluation are Kasthamandap-Gansu Hengtong JV, SXRB-Bright Bull JV. Similarly, JTCG-Danfe JV, China First Highway Engineering-Parallel JV, Yusin-ART JV and Vedanshi-Ranken JV.  All these Chinese companies have submitted bids for the JV with Nepali companies. EMSL-PSCPL JV is an Indian company. 

The delay in operating the tunnel has been due to the failure to select a service provider on time. The project had first invited bids on October 16 to select a service provider through an international bid for the operation of the tunnel. Accordingly, the deadline for submitting bids was until December 2. However, the deadline was extended for the first time until December 16 as per the demands of international construction companies and Nepali construction entrepreneurs. 

During this period, the construction entrepreneurs demanded clarification on some points of the provisions set by the project, so the time was extended to December 30. 150 manpower will be mobilized for tunnel operation. Two months of training time have been allocated for that. The selected service provider will manage the employees deployed for tunnel operation. The participating manpower will be shown by operating the tunnel as a test. 

The project stated that since it is an international bid, a foreign company has been made a mandatory joint venture with the Nepali company. Such a provision will prepare Nepali technicians to operate the tunnel and later it will be easy for Nepalis to operate the tunnel themselves. The selected service provider will now have to manage and operate the tunnel for five years.

The tunnel will have to be maintained for five years, including maintenance, traffic management, emergency rescue, toll collection, and maintenance of the entire tunnel and the 2.8-kilometer access road connecting Kathmandu and Dhading. The service provider will have to operate and manage the tunnel for 365 days a year. The cost of operation will be borne by the government, and the selected service provider will have to deposit the toll collected into the Road Board Nepal account every day. Currently, Japan has a concessional loan of 16 billion and the Nepalese government has invested 6 billion rupees. Although documents with preparations for an additional loan of about 5.5 billion rupees have reached the Ministry of Finance, the process has not been completed.