As part of improving road safety, Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has taken an initiative to set up a 12-lane Vehicle Inspection Centre (VIC). The centre will be operational by early next year and will be under private management.
The government is spending Taka 105.22 crore for this project, according to sources of the Road Transport and Highways Division.
The BRTA deals with road safety matters by issuing motor vehicle registration, fitness, tax tokens, route permits and driving licenses.
A procurement proposal of BRTA in this regard is likely to be presented at the next meeting (Wednesday) of the Cabinet Committee on Public Procurement for approval.
Officials of BRTA said the VIC will help reduce accidents on roads and highways across the country.
The VIC will be able to perform automated fitness testing of motor vehicles and will also have the authority to cancel licenses of vehicles in Dhaka areas.
According to the BRTA proposal, the centre will be under private management operating for a period of 5 years and will hand over to BRTA at the end of the term.
In this condition, BRTA experimentally took the initiative to set up VIC in Dhaka Metro-1, Mirpur Circle Office as there is not enough space in the BRTA office compound in Mirpur.
For this purpose, the 12,075 sq ft space of the BRTC adjacent to the office has already been cleared through the Road Transport and Highways Department.
BRTA entered into an agreement with Dexteras Consultants Limited, a consulting firm, on December 26, 2016 to oversee the drawing, design and construction of the VIC.
The contract was valid till July 31, 2021. The consulting firm initially submitted the drawings and designs of a 12-lane VIC.
Request for Proposal (RFP) and Expression of Interest (EOI) was prepared by a committee under BRTA to select vendors/service providers to supply, install, operate, maintain and hand over the necessary equipment for the VIC for a period of five years.
The BRTC requested the Expression of Interest (EOI) on April 25, 2019 for the selection of service providers and the EOI advertisement was published in several news outlets on April 26.
A total of 9 applications were received. Their EOIs were evaluated by the BRTA's Proposal Evaluation Committee and recommended the inclusion of 4 companies in the shortlist and it was approved by the Head of the Procurement Office.
Following the recommendation of the evaluation committee, RFP was given to those companies on October 20, 2019 and all the four companies submitted their proposals within the stipulated date.
According to the proposal, the Financial Evaluation Committee recommended Computer Network Systems (CNS) Limited as the lowest bidder to implement the project with Taka 82.85 crore excluding Value Added Tax (VAT), Advance Income Tax (AIT) and other local taxes.
Therefore, the total cost to implement the project, including all taxes will be Taka 105.22 crore.
ask/zn
